Grove City School Board set salaries Monday for administrators, hoping to strike a balance between what the district is willing to pay and what educators are willing to work for.

Board member Doug Thomas said the district’s goal is to bring administration salaries closer to a midpoint level in comparison with districts of similar size and wealth in the region within five years.

The salaries represent at least a 3.3 percent increase plus an adjustment regarding the midpoint.

The district "does not want to be in the top of salary levels for administrators because Grove City cannot afford that," Thomas said. But, he added, the district does not want to be on the bottom because it could lose good administrators.

Director John Sparks agreed. "I haven’t been a fan of paying big bucks for anything, but it is very hard to get good administrators today," he said.

He acknowledged, "Our administrators aren’t perfect" but noted, "When you see the problems with other districts, it influences us, as board members, to try to keep the administrators we have."

The administrators and their salaries, effective July 1, 2000, to June 30, 2001, are: Grove City school board voted unanimously to give a one-time bonus totaling $2,000 to Hillview Intermediate Principal Rich Bonnar, who was recently awarded two national awards. He will receive $1,000 from the district for each of the awards..

Board President Stephen Gould said that The National Principals Association named Bonnar as a National Distinguished Principal. The organization names one principal from each state, according to Superintendent Dr. Robert M. Post. In addition, under Bonnar, Hillview Intermediate received a Blue Ribbon Award of Excellence from the U.S. Department of Education.