The Little Rock School Board voted 4-3 late Thursday night to give Superintendent Dexter Suggs a 1 percent pay increase and extend his contract by one year, making it a three-year contract that will expire June 30, 2017.
A three-year contract is the longest allowed by state law for a public school district superintendent. The 1 percent raise in his $200,000 a year salary amounts to an additional $2,000 for Suggs, who was chief of staff in the Indianapolis public schools before he became a first-time superintendent in this state's largest district in July 2013.
The vote on the contract came during a more than five-hour meeting in which the board voted unanimously to establish a committee to plan a possible reconfiguration of Hall High School, one of the district's poorest performing schools. The board also voted 7-0 for a revised set of board goals for the coming school year, including one that calls for "a successful campaign for an appropriate millage increase" to fund the improvement and expansion of the district's school buildings.
The board's approval of the contract extension and raise for Suggs rested in part on the votes of two board members -- Jody Carreiro and Norma Johnson -- who were defeated for re-election earlier this month and are scheduled to go out of office today. Joy Springer and Jim Ross were elected to fill the positions and are to be sworn into office after the Pulaski County Election Commission's 5 p.m. meeting to certify the election results.
Ross, who actively lobbied for Suggs' hiring last year, said during the campaign that he would not vote for the extension. Springer has been critical of some of Suggs' decisions.
Also voting for the extension and raise Thursday were School Board President Greg Adams and board member Leslie Fisken.
Those voting in opposition to the extension were board members Dianne Curry, C.E. McAdoo and Tara Shephard.
Carreiro made the motion for the renewed contract and the raise, calling the raise appropriate for a district that is attempting to rein in its expenses but less than the 3 percent across-the-board raise that all employees received for the past year. Additionally, eligible employees received another 3 percent step increase for their additional year of work experience.
McAdoo said he would rather leave the contract as is -- due to expire in two years or June 30, 2016. He noted that 1 percent of a large salary is much more than 3 percent of a small salary.
"We've not had adequate time to have a good evaluation of what's gone on," McAdoo said, adding later that he is proud of some of the work that has been done in the past year by the board and superintendent but that "there is an elephant in the room -- a climate situation in the Little Rock School District -- that has not reached up to us."
Fisken said "an enormous amount of improvement occurred" including academic gains. She noted the January desegregation case settlement, improvements in safety at district schools and the re-engagement of the community in the public school district.
"These are exciting times," Fisken said. "We've not seen this in years."
Johnson proved to be the swing vote on the contract, speaking at length about the need for stability in the district and for the district leadership to work together for that to benefit students and to have any hope of passing a property-tax increase for improving school buildings.
"We can't be bouncing everyone around," she said. "You can't keep kicking people to the curb."
Metro on 09/26/2014