Hallgarth

Baker School District Superintendent Casey Hallgarth is getting an 18% pay raise after a first year in the job that school board members deemed successful.

The board voted 5-0 Tuesday evening, June 17, to approve a one-year contract with Hallgarth that boosts his salary from $157,000 to $186,000.

The board hired Hallgarth in March 2024, and his first one-year contract started July 1, 2024.

“He’s earning it, and we need to show him our appreciation,” school board chairman Travis Cook said after Tuesday’s meeting. “I think we’re going to see a lot of great things.”

Cook, whose four-year term ends June 30, presided over his final meeting. He didn’t run for another term on the five-member board in the May 20 election.

His board seat will be filled by Susan Yen, a retired longtime teacher in the district who won a two-candidate race in May.

The board will have a new vacancy to fill, however.

Chris Hawkins, a former board chairman and board member since 2013, announced Tuesday that he is stepping down with two years left on his term.

Hawkins said after Tuesday’s meeting that he believes the timing is right for him to leave the board.

“I feel pretty comfortable with where the district is at,” he said, citing its financial stability and the new contract with Hallgarth.

The four board members — Jessica Dougherty, who ran unopposed for another four-year term in May, Andrew Bryan, Julie Huntington and Yen — will appoint Hawkins’ replacement.

The board likely will discuss the appointment process during its next meeting, scheduled for July 15.

Superintendent contract

Hallgarth, who was attending a conference in Seaside and participated in Tuesday’s meeting remotely, in a phone interview Friday morning, June 20, called the new contract a “very humbling vote of confidence from our board. I think they have full faith in me.”

Hallgarth, who grew up in Elgin and worked in the Prairie City School District for six years before moving to Baker City, said he “didn’t take this job because of the salary.”

“I came here on the premise that Baker is a great place to live and a great place to work,” he said. “To me (the raise) means more responsibility to work even harder.”

Hallgarth said he feels blessed “that I get to work here every day. I don’t want to squander that opportunity at all. I know I can always do better. I plan to be here as long as I can be.”

The board discussed the proposed contract during an executive session (closed to the public) before reconvening in the public session and voting on the contract.

Cook said Hallgarth’s $29,000 pay raise is based in part on a comparison of superintendent salaries in nine other districts, including several in Eastern Oregon, with student enrollments ranging from 1,395 to 2,535. Baker’s enrollment is about 1,600.

Hallgarth said the Coalition of School Administrators, of which he is a member, paid for that comparison.

The districts in the comparison: Ontario, Morrow County, La Grande, Milton-Freewater, Philomath, Seaside, South Umpqua, Fern Ridge, Umatilla. The average superintendent salary for those districts is $170,397, with a range from $142,295 to $186,453.

Hallgarth said that although he proposed the contract, including the 18% pay increase, to the board, he also told board members that if they had rejected the proposal, “that’s OK.”

Cook said during Tuesday’s meeting that he believes it’s appropriate to increase Hallgarth’s salary “up to a level playing field” with his counterparts in those other districts.

Cook noted that in 2023 the board approved a salary schedule for Baker teachers that sets the minimum annual salary at $60,000, an increase of more than $21,000 from the previous base.

One of the board’s goals was to entice high-quality teachers to stay, and the district has had few teaching vacancies, other than retirements, in the past two years.

Cook said he hopes the new contract with Hallgarth will have a similar effect.

“We’d like him to stay a while,” he said.

Hallgarth said on Friday that the 2023 salary schedule for teachers has both helped the district keep its best teachers, and attract top-quality educators when there’s a teaching vacancy due to a retirement.

 

Cook said the board gave Hallgarth high marks in an evaluation of his performance earlier this spring.

“I think Casey has really, really taken the horse by the reins,” Cook said.

Dougherty agreed.

“Casey has done a great job, and I think he’s grown a lot,” Dougherty said.

Huntington said Hallgarth has “wrapped his hands around our diverse district needs with intention. He clearly has the interests of our students at the forefront of his planning and is actively looking at ways to provide the best educational experience possible. I’m looking forward to year 2.”

Board member Andrew Bryan, whose tenure includes four superintendents, said he is confident that Hallgarth will have a “long and successful tenure.”

“Given the task of leading the community’s largest employer, an organization that directly touches the lives of youth and their families throughout the entire community on a daily basis, not to mention the complexity of a district with so many moving parts beyond its size, like the BTI (Baker Technical Institute) program and providing services for our sponsored statewide charter schools, this renewed contract for the superintendent is a great investment in the future for us all.”

Budget approval

The board on Tuesday also approved the district’s budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

The district remains in solid financial shape, with a projected fund balance of $13.6 million at the start of the fiscal year, according to the budget message by Mitch Neilson, the district’s chief financial officer. That’s up from $12.3 million last year.

Neilson noted, however, that the district’s bill for PERS — Oregon’s Public Employee Retirement System — will increase substantially in the coming fiscal year. As an example, the district’s contribution to PERS will rise by an estimated $12,600, on average, for each teacher, Neilson wrote in the budget message.

“Thanks to the District’s strong financial position, we are able to absorb these costs without reducing staff,” he wrote. “We expect PERS rates to continue to increase every two years without significant legislative action.”

State officials adjust PERS rates every two years.

The state supplies about 53% of the district’s total revenue — about $62.7 million for the current fiscal year.

Other major sources include federal programs, at about $7.8 million, and local property taxes, about $5.7 million for the current fiscal year.

State revenue is based on the district’s enrollment, which has not regained the drop during the pandemic. Enrollment is about 140 students below the pre-pandemic level.

Enrollment, and revenue, has increased, however, in two district projects, the Baker Web Academy and Baker Early College, Neilson wrote in the budget message. The Baker Web Academy has online students across the state, with an enrollment of about 2,900, which is about 80% more students than attend in-person classes in district schools. Baker Early College has about 500 students.

Health curriculum

The board voted 5-0 to adopt a new health curriculum for middle school and high school students.

The curriculum, which includes textbooks and online information, is from Human Kinetics and is called “Living Well.”

The district will pay $17,340 for a seven-year license that includes textbooks and online access, Greg Mitchell, the district’s director of federal programs and curriculum, told the board.