Colorado education board reviewing salary range increases for top paid employees

(The Center Square) – The Colorado State Board of Education is seeking approval to increase its salary ranges for its non-classified at-will employees who are among its highest-paid executives.

The State Board of Education is reviewing the proposed increases at its Aug. 17 board meeting that would be 4.5% across the board and have top-of-the-scale salaries ranging from $82,006 for a consultant to $236,748 for a deputy commissioner.

The salary schedule that is being reviewed for an increase covers nine job categories: consultant, senior consultant, principal consultant, supervisor, director, executive director, assistant commissioner, associate commissioner and deputy commissioner.

The state board of education said it has 429 non-classified staff employees who are not covered by Colorado Workers for Innovative and New Solutions, the union that represents about 24,000 state employees.

The education department said one reason the salary ranges would be increased was so at-will employees at the top of the pay scale could receive their full raise that would have been capped without expanding the pay ranges.

“It is somewhat of a routine step that the SBE conducts when looking at how positions should be compensated,” Jeremy Meyer, an SBE spokesman, said in an email to The Center Square.

In November 2022, the at-will employees received a 5% increase that was approved in the state budget. Meyer said an across-the-board 5% pay increase for the Colorado Charter School Institute and the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind that included union and non-unionized employees cost $3.05 million.