Superintendent Dr. James Price received a salary increase from Vicksburg Warren School District trustees Thursday, a move he said puts him in line with other school chiefs in the state.

Approved unanimously following a brief executive session concluding the five-member panels monthly meeting, the raise will take Price’s annual salary from $123,600 to $140,000 — a hike of about 12 percent.

The raise will take effect for the fiscal year beginning July 1, board president and District 1 Trustee Jerry Boland said. It marks the third salary hike for Price since succeeding Donald Oakes in 2003. At the time of his hiring, Price’s salary was $104,000 per year. No increase was awarded after his first year.

Price is in his fifth year as superintendent of the 9,200-student Vicksburg Warren School District. His current contract carries through the 2009-10 school year.

After the meeting, Price said salaries of superintendents in Mississippi vary by school population and the raise was commensurate with the district’s standing as the sixth-largest in the state.

“Some districts have more students than others, so it’s difficult to compare,” Price said.

This year, the school system budget grew to $77 million, with about $10 million in state educational bonds refinanced last year and 3 percent faculty raises. During his tenure, Price, like many school chiefs in the state, has lobbied for full funding of the Mississippi Adequate Education Program. Earlier in the day, the Mississippi House of Representatives passed a bill to funnel millions more into the program and raise teacher pay by 3 percent starting in 2009. The bill now moves to the Senate.

The district here has an overall Level 3 rating, cited recently by some in business and industry as insufficient to provide quality workers and an explanation for the high number of commuters, particularly from the Clinton area. Price has dismissed those comments and encouraged the leaders to learn more about what the district here is doing.

On Jan. 15, Clinton, a Level 5 district, named Dr. Phil Burchfield as superintendent. Burchfield signed to a four-year contract worth $135,000 annually to lead the 4,859-student district in Hinds County 30 miles east of Vicksburg.

The system is also analyzing new data from the state relating to its dropout rate. Price has said the rate computed by the state in the recent past to be 38 percent reflecting students who had enrolled in another school system without the district being notified — leading to numbers Price said were “drastically different” between the district and the state. Details of the modified rate are forthcoming, Price said.