High-school o cials’ fees to increase

BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

e long, sought-after pay increases for high-school game o cials are ofcially in play.

e Colorado High School Activities Association’s legislative council, which makes CHSAA’s decisions, voted overwhelmingly Jan. 24 to increase o cials’ pay by $10 over the next three years. With it comes an increase in mileage fees for o cials. It’s 40 cents now, increasing to 50 cents a mile for the 20232024 school year and up to 60 cents per mile in the 2025-2026 school year.

CHSAA’s new commissioner, Mike Krueger, said Colorado has been in the bottom third nationally and regionally in o cials’ pay for several years.

“It’s a crisis situation,” he told the council before its vote. “A lot of older o cials are retiring, and we have a lack of a personnel pool.”

Schools will feel a sizable budget increase, but Krueger said that would apply to just the rst year of pay increases. He thought the impact would be somewhere north of 30 percent.

Krueger also told the council more pay for o cials means higher expectations.

“We’ll work with them to make sure they have the education and the memberships they need,” he told the council. “One area where we have fallen behind is hospitality. We have to support each other. We’ve got to unite around that shared responsibility.”

CSHAA’s o cials’ fee committee will take another look at the pay scale in three to four years. Chairman Eric Johnson, the athletic director at Windsor High School, said the time frame was about the same for other states when they discuss pay rates for game