On May 6, 2014, the school board went through a very, NOT so, transparent process in giving the superintendent a $21,000.00 salary increase.
Several days prior to the school board meeting. The board president sent us an email, with a confidential draft of a proposed contract with the superintendent. The email said we could not share the contents of the contract and we were to provide her with feedback.
The ONLY time the board could discuss the contract was in the closed door meeting, prior to the public meeting.
Fellow school board member asked that the contract be made public, prior to the vote, the board president refused.
The contract was not provided to the public for review nor could school board members discus its contents with anyone.
The contract was placed on the ACTION item agenda, bypassing the discussion item agenda. As you can see, in the meeting, the contents of the contract were not discussed.
School Board Slyly Gives Superintendent a $21,000.00 Raise:
Blog Link
Later in the meeting, I asked that the contract be made public and included in the proceedings of the meeting. The board president was initially opposed to the request and asked the school board attorney for his opinion. He states that it can be made a part of the public record, all while the board president is now saying “yeah, yeah, and yeah”.
Secret Contract into the Light:
Blog Link
So, here you have it, the contract with my editorial comments:
We need to go up to the Capitol and get this process changed. In the past the school board has the reappointment on the consent agenda and never discussed the contract. In fact, once I got on the board and asked for a copy of the contract, it was apparent that other members of the board had not even seen it, nor was it published publicly.
I requested that it be placed in the minutes of this meeting. Now we need to work on a more transparent process.