ELGIN — Elgin’s Board of Education voted to approve a new contract for Superintendent Nate Meraz, who is finishing his eighth year in that position.
The contract approval came during the Jan. 12 school board meeting. The contract gives Meraz a salary of $170,000, which begins with the new fiscal year July 1.
The superintendent’s current base salary is $135,000. Part of the compensation package includes health insurance and teacher retirement, which is paid by the district.
“I’m very appreciative of the new contract. I’ve been here for eight years, my kids go here and my wife teaches here. I have no plans of leaving this great community,” Meraz said.
Meraz also spent three years as Elgin’s assistant superintendent and taught and coached at Elgin. Before arriving in Elgin, Meraz was the elementary principal at Fletcher and high school principal at Cache.
Bonus program
In other business, the school board also voted to renew its bonus and incentive program for Elgin Public School employees who submit their retirement paperwork. This is the eighth year for the program, Meraz said.
Retirees are not eligible for the bonus until they have officially submitted their resignation to the district and started the retirement process with the Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System.
Retiring employees must submit their retirement notice by March 1 to be eligible for one of two bonuses. The first bonus is figured by the years of service multiplied by $100 if the employee has served up to 24 years. If the employee has worked at Elgin 25 years or more, the formula changes to years of service multiplied by $200.
The program is considered each year by the school board, depending on the district’s financial status, but is not guaranteed.
The bonus is paid to qualifying employees at the same time they receive their final paycheck, Meraz said.
“This is something nice the board wanted to do, and they’ve done it each year since I’ve been here,” the superintendent said.
Fewer school district employees are retiring now because of a new requirement by the state teacher retirement system that employees must work until they turn 62.
“I think this started in 2014 or 2015 but does not apply to anyone before that date,” Meraz said.
Transfer policy
The Elgin school board also voted to approve updated transfer capacities as submitted by the administration. A new state law requires all school districts to publicly post their student capacities in each grade for transfer purposes.
“Right now, we have zero capacity for grades kindergarten through 12,” Meraz said. “However, if we were to have slots open, we would have to take new (transfer) students.”
All districts maintain a list of transfer students, and the students at the top are allowed to enroll when openings become available.
However, Elgin does have openings in pre-kindergarten but children are not required to attend pre-K, Meraz said.