MANSFIELD — The Mansfield City Schools Board of Education approved a new pay scale for administrators on Wednesday night, financed in large part by a change in health-care plans.

Board treasurer Robert Kuehnle said the first raise in eight years affects 36 non-union personnel at a total $242,000. He added that $170,000 of that funding comes from the district’s year-over-year savings thanks to a new health-care plan for administrators.

“They upgraded to a health savings account plan for their medical and prescription, and it was a huge cost-saver for the district,” Kuehnle said. “When we look at what we are paying these employees, it’s salary and benefits — and a lot of times, it’s salary only. The benefits can be quite expensive, too.

“What we did was look at the whole picture and realized changing to a HSA plan is a lower-cost plan that I think has more benefits.”

Kuehnle said the plan helped the district finance the approximate 11-percent raises for administrators. 

“We can take those (health-care savings) funds and put them into salary,” he added.

District superintendent Brian Garverick said administrative raises had not been given since 2009. As a result the district saw some of it’s high-quality members leave. He said he hopes the new pay scale will reduce the districts turnover.

“There was not consistent leadership in the central office to bring that to the front,” Garverick said. “What this does is help us attract more applicants to our district — for all levels. It will help us retain and it will also help us to grow our own administration in our district.”

The administrators — principals, assistant principals, campus director, chief academic officer, special education director, adult education coordinator and other classified administrators — each have a step on the new pay scale. Garverick said the steps are based on responsibilities in the school district.

Their step equals their daily pay. Their new salaries are based off of their daily pay multiplied by the number of days worked.

For instance, school principals who work 210 to 260 days a year have their daily pay multiplied by their step, Kuehnle said.

Board member Chris Elswick cast the lone no-vote on the motion because he was worried it was too large of a raise at the moment.

“I do respect our administrators, and we have talked with Brian for years about how the pay scale needs changes. I think it’s gotten out of whack over several years, and I don’t think we can make up for it all at one time,” Elswick said. “I was hoping we could do it over two, three years.

“I do agree they need a raise for them, but then it should also follow with a raise for the union side (teachers, buss drivers and custodians) and sports staff.”

Elswick said during the nearly three-hour executive session, board members had differing opinions on the numbers for the raises. Kuehnle said he compared administrative salaries to other districts he described as similar to Mansfield.

Compared to schools such as Lima, Sandusky, Lexington Local and Fremont City, he found a median average of those salaries and asked for board approval for their district.

“I had five or six of them each time, so I went to the middle (salary) of them,” he said. “We may be paying our assistant principal around $72,000 and Ontario is paying maybe $84,000. We were just so far behind.”

While the board members felt it was time to update the school administrators pay scale, it’s superintendent said they were still behind.

“If you look at the light school districts like Lorain — they are above us (in pay),” he said. “We’re still low for districts like us.”