The Park City Board of Education has hired Dr. Jill Gildea as the school district’s new superintendent. The Board has also approved a substantially larger pay and benefit package than paid to former superintendents – saying district patrons will get what they pay for. Click here to see Gildea's employment agreement with the school district.
The school board meets today in a special regular session. The meeting starts at 6 P.M. in the District Offices on Kearns Boulevard. Carolyn Murray reports.
Dr. Gildea’s salary package totals $340,000.00 a year. That includes a base salary of $235,000.00, the standard district benefits package, including health insurance and state retirement. New to the salary benefits package is a school district owned home for the new superintendent to live in.
District Business Administrator, Todd Hauber says the board expected to pay over $200,000 a year to attract the caliber of talent the Park City community expects.
Dr. Ember Conley recently left the Park City School District after five years as Superintendent. Conley’s base salary was 170,000 plus benefits.
“Yes we will be paying the new superintendent more than we were paying Dr. Conley. Dr. Gildea comes with a great deal of experience and expertise and in the marketplace right now it costs that kind of pay to get that type of Superintendent into a School District. We had also visited with HYA and asked them to sound out where the candidates might be on pay ask and so we kind of knew where that would go and it was above 200,000 as we were going through the candidate pool.”
During public input at Tuesday’s board meeting, the board was asked by Park City resident, Jim Tedford, to explain the rationale of paying the new Superintendent so much more.
According to Hauber, the school board decided earlier in the year that a compensation package to attract a Superintendent to Park City would require access to living in the school district boundaries. Gildea will be the first beneficiary of the new school district owned residence. Hauber says it will be considered a capital expense.
“So there was a different thought, before we began the process, there was conversations and ideas given to the school board that we really as a community value as a Superintendent living in the community and being part of the community knowing that the housing can be very challenging here in affordability and being able to bring that individual in the board felt it was in their best interest and the community to make the residence part of a permanent package. So it’s not so much buying a house for this particular Superintendent but having an asset as we move forward in time there will be a residence for the Superintendent so they can live in the community, be part of the community and fully engaged with the community.”
Conley has taken the head position of the Mesa Unified School District in Arizona with a population of 60,000 students.
Gildea’s background is as a Superintendent for less than a year leading the Greenwich Public School District – a district of just 93-hundred students and 16 schools. Before that, Gildea led a School District in Illinois with and 2300 students and four schools grades pre K through 8.
Hauber says the pay difference is somewhere in the range of $65,000.00 base pay between former superintendent Conley and Gildea.
“We absolutely get what we pay for and in the markets we were in we already knew we were in the plus 200 range. So we’re feeling very comfortable what we’re paying and what we’re asking that Superintendent to do. I hope it’s not battle pay or hazard pay. We just have an awesome talent coming into the district and I think we’ll have great benefits come from it.
There are comparable base salaries in the State but for significantly larger school districts. According to most recent data, the Alpine School District Superintendent earns $225.000 a year base pay for more than 75,000 student enrollment. Granite School District pays their Superintendent $207,000 a year to manage a student population of 67,000. Park City District has 4800 students as of 2018.
