By HILARY MATHESON

The Daily Inter Lake

Kalispell Public Schools principals will be placed on a new salary matrix in addition to 2.25-percent salary increases starting July 1.

The 2.25 percent increase is for the 2015-16 school year.

These changes affect 18 employees. They do not include the superintendent or central office staff.

The school board approved the increases Tuesday.

The matrix is set up by steps in which principals will move up each year up to 15 years. It is estimated most new hires will start at step one.

The matrix will be adjusted annually to reflect cost-of-living adjustments.

School trustees have discussed a salary matrix off and on for several years. The district did a comprehensive analysis comparing principal salaries to other Montana AA school districts.

What the district discovered is that Kalispell Public Schools was paying the lowest building administrator salaries among AA districts.

Kalispell Public Schools honed in on Bozeman as a district comparable to Kalispell in size and student makeup and set the salary matrix to 95 percent of what Bozeman principals make.

District Human Resources Director Tracy Scott said Kalispell wanted to be conservative and reasonable in setting salaries — neither the highest nor the lowest.

“We didn’t bring them to the top average, but we wanted to at least bring them in with the average. We’re not quite at 50 percent yet, but we’re no longer at the bottom,” Scott said.

Scott said it was a matter of retention and recognizing principals’ hard work.

“We have some incredible administrators in the district,” Scott said. “We want to make sure we’re fairly compensating so we don’t continue to lose our best and brightest.”

Trustee Dave Schultz agreed that Kalispell should pay quality administrators competitive salaries. Schultz added that a salary matrix also gives clarity to salary expectations for new hires.

Trustee Tom Clark was the lone vote against the matrix because it was primarily based on Bozeman. Clark said he believes principals should be adequately compensated for their work. However, he said comparing salaries to Bozeman, while the school may be similar in size, is unwise.

Clark said the district should have taken into consideration the city as a whole and reflected the salary range in the private sector and cost of living because it’s the taxpayers who are essentially paying the salaries.

“The point I was trying to make is that the income of your public officials should be based on the incomes of the taxpayers that are paying the salaries,” Clark said. “When Kalispell has the lowest pay scale, as far as the major cities, why are we comparing to Bozeman, which is on the higher end of the pay scale?”

The two top-paid building administrators are the high school principals, who oversee the largest student populations in the district (combined Flathead and Glacier high school enrollment is more than 2,800). When placed on the matrix at step four in addition to the 2.25 percent increase for the 2015-16 school year, Flathead Principal Peter Fusaro (nine years of experience) and Callie Langohr (16 years of experience) each will make $104,767.

A Bozeman high school principal with four years of experience would make roughly $109,000, according to Scott.

The lowest-paid principal will be Edgerton Assistant Principal Jennifer Stein, with two years of experience, at $71,004 for the 2015-16 school year.

“The principals were conscious of our fiduciary responsibilities and looked at this in a positive way,” Scott said. “We all know we’re in this business for our kids.”

The salary schedule starts at step one and completes at step 15. Principals will move up a step each year they are with the district. Steps do not represent years of experience. Lowest and highest salaries on the building principal matrix are as follows:

High school principal

Step 1 — $98,500

Step 15 — $124,950.14

High school assistant principal

Step 1 — $85,695

Step 15 — $109,773.67

Middle school principal

Step 1 — $88,650

Step 15 — $113,558.97

Middle school assistant principal

Step 1 — $78,800

Step 15 — $100,941.31

Elementary principal

Step 1— $83,725

Step 15 — $107,250.14

Elementary assistant principal

Step 1— $73,875

Step 15 — $94,632.48

Kalispell Public Schools trustees also approved a two-year contract with the Kalispell Federation of Classified Personnel.

The contract creates a 2.25 percent increase in pay for the 2015-16 school year and a 2 percent increase for the 2016-17 school year.

This contract affects 151 employees in positions such as secretaries, bookkeepers, assistants, clerks, office managers crossing guards and food-service workers.

Employees who have more than 20 years with the district and have “stepped off” the federation’s salary schedule receive 25-cent, non-accumulative increases.

A tentative agreement with the custodial union has been reached.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.