The North Little Rock School Board has extended Superintendent Kelly Rodgers' contract by one year, giving him a three-year contract, School Board President Luke King said Tuesday.
A three-year contract is the longest contract allowed by state law for a public school system leader.
The board's 5-1 vote for the contract extension was done in public late Monday after the board evaluated the superintendent in a 1½ hour executive session that was closed to the public.
Board members voting for the extension were King, Sandi Campbell, Tracy Steele, Scott Teague and Ron Treat. Board member Dorothy Williams voted against the extension without public comment, King said. Board member Darrell Montgomery was absent.
Rogers, 59, is in his third year as superintendent in the 9,000-student district, where he earns a $185,000 annual salary. When he was hired in 2013, he had had been a superintendent for a total of 10 years in school districts in Center, Texas and Terrell, Texas.
Rodgers is a graduate of Parkview High School in Little Rock, and he earned a bachelor's degree in music education from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia. He has a master's degree in educational administration from East Texas State University -- now Texas A&M University-Commerce -- and has done additional postgraduate studies.
In addition to working in the Texarkana, Texas, public school system, he taught two years in Pleasant Grove, Texas, before becoming an assistant principal in 1988 and principal in 1990 in that district.
In 1997 he became assistant superintendent in DeKalb, Texas, where his responsibilities included rebuilding elementary and high school campuses that were struck by a 1999 tornado. His first superintendent job in 2002 was in the 2,650-student Center, Texas, system. He became superintendent in Terrell, a district of 4,250 students, in 2007.
Arkansas' public school district superintendents are permitted by law to have three-year contracts with their school districts. It is not unusual for school boards to extend a superintendent's contract after the completion of each work year so the chief executive has the security of an ongoing three-year contract.
Metro on 01/27/2016