CPS superintendent gets 6% pay increase

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Columbia Board of Education on Monday approved a salary increase for Superintendent Jeff Klein. 

The increase was on the agenda for Monday’s Board of Education meeting, which began at 6 p.m. Under the proposal, Klein will receive a 6% salary increase ($15,300) for the next school year. Klein currently makes $255,000 per year and the increase would bump it up to $270,300 for the 2026-27 school year.

According to CPS Chief Financial Officer Heather McArthur, under Klein’s contract, the school board must vote each to decide between a 1-6% increase. Klein is also eligible for a 6% increase ($16,218) when entering the third year of his contract, according to previous reporting.

“We look at, obviously, the job that’s being done. We have an evaluation process that we do for the superintendent every year, were using MSBA’s (Missouri School Boards' Association) again. It’s a tenuous process to go through that evaluation, but the contract says every year we’ve got to review that salary,” Board President Jon Lynman told ABC 17 News before the meeting. “We looked at average salary increases for the rest of our employees. We looked at what he’s been doing, what he has done. Is he doing the things that we asked him to do? And we come up with that number. He has an idea. We have an idea, and we come to an agreement.” 

Klein signed a three-year contract in March 2025 following the district’s separation with Brian Yearwood.

“He’s doing all the things that we could want a new superintendent to do. He wasn’t new to Columbia, he was here before,” Lynman said. “He felt right at home coming in.” 

Klein spent 18 years in the Park Hill School District in the Kansas City area, with nine of those years as the assistant superintendent for academic services. He worked for Satchel, an education software company, before being hired at CPS.

Before being promoted, he previously served as CPS’s chief academic officer, but replaced interim superintendent Chris Belcher after the district parted ways with Brian Yearwood. Yearwood was hired in 2021. He was under contract through June 2027, making about $260,000 per year after taking the reins from Peter Stiepleman. Following Yearwood's exit from CPS, he was paid more than $667,000 in a buyout.

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