Elk Grove Unified Superintendent Steven Ladd has decided not to accept any more salary increases as leader of the region's largest school district.

His decision – announced Tuesday night by the district's board of trustees – will amount to $10,000 in savings for the district next school year and about $20,000 every year after that.

On Wednesday, Ladd told The Bee he had decided to freeze his pay because he expects the school district will continue to struggle with reduced state aid.

"It was the right thing to do," Ladd said. "It was a personal decision for me. I have been thinking about it for some time."

Ladd's decision comes a month after Fresno County School Superintendent Larry Powell decided to give up his salary and benefits through 2015 – totaling $800,000.

Ladd's contract calls for a salary of $273,195 this year, but he makes $243,424 because of a 4.1 percent salary rollback and nine furlough days.

All district employees had similar rollbacks in salary or have otherwise reduced their pay and benefits, according to Elizabeth Graswich, district spokeswoman.

When these concessions expire in 2013, Ladd will be eligible for this year's contracted salary of $273,195. He will take no future salary increases, Graswich said.

The 60-year-old superintendent has worked for the district for seven years.

The announcement came at the beginning of a meeting filled with district employees frustrated over furloughs, increased class sizes and pay cuts. Union leaders came to the meeting to ask top administrators to give up an annual 3.5 percent pay raise.

"It's a good first step," Scott Scidmohr, co-associate director of the Elk Grove Education Association, said Wednesday of Ladd's decision.

At Tuesday's meeting, union leaders told the board that they had concerns about administrative salaries.

"Top administration is taking average cuts and this isn't leadership," said Maggie Ellis, president of the Elk Grove Education Association in a taped recording of the meeting. "Leadership leads by example. They should take the largest cuts."

Union leaders complained that the district had patterned administrative cuts after those of teachers, but that because of differences in the number of days worked and the number of teachers ineligible for step pay increases due to years of service, it wasn't equitable.

The union said it agreed to salary rollbacks in order to preserve the annual step increases, which will allow employees to return to full salaries when the rollbacks expire.

The administration's raises are annual step increases that all employees – including teachers – earn, Graswich said.

The superintendent and five of the district's six associate superintendents were given 3.5 percent step increases in pay this year. One associate superintendent was ineligible for the increase because he was already at the top salary level for that position.

Union leader Scidmohr said that despite the salary rollback, this year's step increase brings Ladd's salary up by $8,000. His salary freeze begins next year.

"We have two more difficult years or more where we will have to make sacrifices again to help solve the budget problems," Scidmohr said.

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Call The Bee's Diana Lambert, (916) 321-1090. Follow her on Twitter @dianalambert.

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