LITTLE ROCK — The Little Rock School District has offered Superintendent Roy Brooks $550,000 to buy out his contract, an amount that School Board President Katherine Mitchell said Tuesday evening is "the bottom line."
But Brooks said he is entitled to more.
"The board has put me through a lot," Brooks said Tuesday evening about School Board attempts to suspend and fire him before deciding to buy out his contract. "What I want is what's fair, and I'm not going to settle for anything lessthan what is fair and what is right."
The School Board voted 4-3 on May 24 to exercise a provision in Brooks' contract that enables the board to unilaterally terminate the superintendent's contract by giving him 90 days notice and the compensation he would receive if he stayed on the job for the two years remaining on the contract.
The board voted to buy out the contract rather than follow through on an initial plan to hold a hearing on charges against Brooks that, if proved, could have warranted his fir-ing without any additional compensation.
Brooks, 56, has been superintendent of the 26,600-student district since July 2004. He is expected to leave the position by Aug. 24.
Mitchell said Tuesday evening that Mike Moore, an attorney with the district's law firm of Friday, Eldredge & Clark, had notified her earlier that Brooks' attorneys had turned down the offer and were seeking about $100,000 more.
"I told [Moore] that, hopefully, next Thursday night, we will have that $550,000 check ready to give it to him," Mitchell said about Brooks and the board's Aug. 23 meeting. "That's what I want to do. I just want to have it ready. That's all he's getting. He can file a lawsuit or whatever he thinks he needs to do. That's going to be the bottom line."
Mitchell is one of the fourmember majority of the sevenmember School Board that haspursued Brooks' ouster since at least March.
Jess Askew III of the Williams & Anderson law firm, one of Brooks' attorneys, declined Tuesday evening to comment about any contract settlementoffer or counter offer.
"I'm not going to say a word about that," Askew said when asked about Mitchell's account. "As far as I'm concerned that is private business. I think it is shocking that she is trying to negotiate through the newspaper. She can say whatever she wants, but the last time I checked she is not the School Board."
Shortly after the board's vote to buy out the contract, Little Rock district officials put together a worksheet detailing the salary and benefits in Brooks' contract and calculations showing that the district's potential maximum cost was $656,357.10. That figure includes Brooks' annual $198,000 salary, an annual car allowance of $11,000, an annual $25,000 payment to an annuity, vacation, health and other types of insurance and a one-time $30,000 service bonus.
Brooks said Tuesday evening that the $656,357 is the amount is he is seeking.
He also said there is no stalemate in the contract buyout talks, but that Mitchell has assumed authority she doesn't have.
"There is no stalemate. Dr. Mitchell is not the board," Brooks said.
"She is not the decisionmaker. She is only part of the group, but she has exercised authority beyond what is reasonable and appropriate."
Brooks said he believes others on the board "will want to do what is right."
Separate from any payment for the contract, Brooks is seeking reimbursement of legal fees from the district. Those fees stem from a federal lawsuit he filed against the board members to stop his suspension and block Mitchell and board member Mike Daugherty fromtaking any action against his employment.
Currently pending before U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Eisele is a request from Brooks for about $70,000 in legal fees and expenses from the Little Rock district.
Front Section, Pages 1, 10 on 08/15/2007