Coupeville Schools Superintendent Steve King
Facebook comments are not real life.
It’s a Wild West out there, where anyone can say anything, and I don’t have the time or desire to spend countless hours shooting down every hot take which gets attached to a link for one of my stories.
I publish on the blog and am much more on top of comments which are submitted here — including requiring approval for first-time commentators.
But every once in a while, I need to address things which seep out from social media.
Nerves are frayed right now, with budget cuts being implemented. People are quick to jump on every last thing.
So, let’s clear up a few details relating to a recent story, which focused on the Coupeville School Board approving Superintendent Steve King’s contract at its meeting this coming Thursday.
That contract, which runs through 2025, is NOT an extension.
The agreement between King and the board was already in place, but there are changes to wording in the contract, as shown in the screenshots attached to the original story.
They primarily concern the timetable for the board’s annual evaluation of the superintendent.
Approval of the language edits is the reason for the contract being part of the agenda.
Secondly, King, along with other school district administrators and directors, is NOT getting a raise.
My story said nothing about a pay raise, though I can see why people might easily jump to that conclusion.
The most recent dollar figure I found for King on GovSalaries.com, which I quoted in the story, was from 2022 and was at $182,970.
That website, while useful for a lot of things, did NOT reflect King signing a contract June 27, 2022, for $198,522 a year running from 2022-2025.
So yes, he got a raise last time around, but his current salary remains fixed in place.
I should have been clearer about that point.
Coupeville’s top school officials jointly agreed to forgo salary increases for the 2023-2024 school year, or, in some cases, take pay reductions as the district works through its budget cuts.
As taxpayers who fund our schools, we have a right to be vocal about those cuts. Make your case. Make it a good one.
And Superintendent King has a right to do the job he’s been hired to do.
We may not agree on who or what is being cut, but don’t jump to the conclusion Coupeville’s administrators are somehow getting rich at other people’s expense.
The numbers, when properly presented, do not reflect that.
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