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During recent contract negotiations between the Hollister School District and teachers, questions were raised about the district’s top two administrators’ pay, especially in comparison to teachers.
According to a public employee compensation website, Superintendent Erika Sanchez and Assistant Superintendent Kip Ward both saw their pay and benefits increased by 64 and 90 percent, respectively, from 2023 to 2024, a raise that would have far outstripped any pay increase teachers have received.
Sanchez has claimed that she and Ward last received a raise in 2023 and that it matched what the teachers had received in cumulative pay increases over a three-year period from the 2021-22 to 2023-24 school years.
While the district and the Hollister Elementary School Teachers Association (HESTA) recently approved an agreement that gives teachers a 2.5% raise for 2026-27, during negotiations a district employee, who asked to remain anonymous, pointed to the Transparent California website reporting that Sanchez and Ward had gotten significant pay and benefit bumps.
The website reported Sanchez’s total pay and benefits jumped from $341,592 in 2023 to $561,654 in 2024 and Assistant Superintendent Kip Ward’s pay and benefitsincreased from $236,601 to $472,060 in the same period.
Transparent California showed the administrators’ “regular pay” for 2024 at $425,307 for Sanchez, up from $248,093 a year earlier, and $369,822 for Ward, up from $179,381 the previous year, respectively. The website states regular pay is what public entities report as base pay or the “normal pay rate of the employee.”
Transparent California publishes compensation information of public employees in the state, including employer-paid benefits and retirement contributions.
“The cost of benefits do not reflect monetary payments received by the employee but, instead, reflect the cost incurred by taxpayers associated with employer-provided health and retirement benefits,” Transparent California states.
The website is part of the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a public service providing accurate and compensation information. It gets its data from public agencies as a result of public record requests.
Sanchez pointed out to BenitoLink that Transparent California’s figures include portions of two fiscal years to come up with the salary amounts for the 2024 calendar year. The district’s fiscal year operates from July to June, rather than by calendar year. The website shows a public employee’s calendar year earnings.
According to district records, Sanchez’s and Ward’s most recent pay raises were approved in December 2023 and matched the raise by percentage the teachers union had gotten up to that point totalling 21.6% between the 2020-21 and 2023-24 school years.
The board approved Sanchez’s base salary at $286,366 and Ward’s at $224,226, an increase from $215,000 and $174,122, respectively. Those pay bumps would have represented salary increases of about 33 and 28 percent, respectively, according to the district. Their contracts expire in June 2027.
Most recently, Ward received a higher salary when he stepped into the interim superintendent position after the board of trustees approved medical leave for Sanchez In August 2024. Ward was given an employee agreement that included an annual salary of $286,366. The agreement’s term lasted until Sanchez returned in July 2025.
Sanchez explained that while represented and unrepresented employees get annual raises, executives don’t. It is common, though, that when executives do get raises, it matches those received by bargaining units.
Overall, Sanchez said the district’s two bargaining groups, HESTA and the California School Employees Association, and its unrepresented employees have received a combined 23.6% salary increase and a 5.4% bump up in benefits since the 2020-21 school year, similar to the increase of cost of living (29.9%) and inflation rates (24.2%) during that period.
Meanwhile, after months of negotiations, the district and the teachers union reached a tentative agreement, according to Sanchez.
Rachel Domezio with HESTA said the negotiations were “closed,” adding that she could not comment further.
The agreement, which was approved by the district Board of Trustees on June 23 and ratified by HESTA, includes a 2.5% wage increase for the 2026-2027 school year. The district approved similar agreements with the California School Employees Association and unrepresented employees.
Rachel Domezio with HESTA said it’s a one-time raise and that teachers negotiate their salaries every year.
“I am grateful for the work our classified and certified staff do each day for the benefit of our students, and I am appreciative of the work both bargaining teams put forth to reach this agreement before certified staff leave for the summer break,” Sanchez said.
At the April 28 Board of Trustees meeting, a teacher said the union was asking for a 4% salary increase while only being offered a 1% increase by the district.
In response to the union’s pay increase demand, Sanchez said the board considers expenditures such as salaries and benefits against projected revenues and student enrollment, and that if the budget is not balanced it triggers cost-cutting measures.
“Those of us that were here a few years back, we remember very clearly the reduction in force of staff,” Sanchez said. “We also remember that when there’s a budget shortfall, not only does it impact staff, it impacts the students because we lose consistency of staff, we lose the opportunity to offer supplemental programs.”
She said it takes years for a district to recover from a year when it reduces staffing.
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