LITTLE ROCK -- The Little Rock School Board on Thursday conditionally approved a three-year contract with Jermall D. Wright that will make him the district's superintendent beginning July 1, 2022, and going through the 2024-2025 school year.
The agreement -- which would provide the new superintendent with a base salary of $240,000 in this coming school year -- is contingent on final verification that Wright, who is coming to the district from outside the state, is eligible for an Arkansas educator license. The clearance or final approval is expected by the middle of next week, School Board President Greg Adams said.
The board voted 7-2 on the superintendent's contract during a regular monthly business meeting in which it voted unanimously in support of a resolution on employee salaries for the coming year. That resolution states, in part, the board's intent to vote later this spring to raise the starting teacher salary from $43,000 to $45,500 and to raise the salaries accordingly for all other more veteran teachers and teachers with credentials above a bachelor's degree.
According to the contract terms, Wright would be paid an annual salary of $240,000 for each of the upcoming 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years.
However, before the start of the superintendent's second and third years, "the board will determine the Superintendent's base pay for the coming year, and the Board and the Superintendent will discuss goals for the superintendent and potential bonus pay for achievement of those goals," the contract says.
The board's vote on the contract comes after it voted unanimously Tuesday night to enter into contract negotiations and background checks with Wright, who is currently the state-appointed superintendent of the Mississippi Achievement School District, which is a combination of the Yazoo City and Humphreys County school systems. Wright is a Jacksonville, Fla., native who has worked in schools there as well as in Washington, D.C. and in the Denver, Philadelphia and Birmingham, Ala., school systems.
Wright and George "Eric" Thomas of Atlanta were the two finalists to replace current Superintendent Mike Poore who announced in December he will retire at the end of June. Poore, 60, has a salary of $270,000.
The School Board met in a closed executive session for an hour Thursday night before approving a motion by member Michael Mason to move forward on the contract for Wright.
Board members Vicki Hatter and Sandrekkia Morning voted against the contract motion, citing ambiguity in the language on compensation.
"I want to make sure he is taken care of in the second and third years," Hatter said.
Other terms of the contract will provide Wright with $1,000 a month for routine business travel within the district in his personal vehicle. Wright will have access to a district cellphone, laptop computer, and computer tablet.
"Within seven days of the execution of this agreement, the District will pay the Superintendent a relocation stipend of $9,000," the document states, adding that Wright will work with the district "as much as reasonably possible" before his July 1 start date. That work will be done at a daily rate of pay commensurate with the $240,000 annual salary.
The contract also calls for the board to evaluate the superintendent to determine whether he has made satisfactory progress toward the goals established by the board.
Regarding salary increases for employees in the 2022-23 school year, the board approved a resolution in support of a compensation package that Poore and his staff will take to the district's personnel policies committees for certified staff and for support staff for their review before the board takes a final vote on the matter -- probably in June.
Poore said the salary plan for the coming year tracks the three-year employee compensation plan adopted by the School Board in 2021.
That three-year pay plan called for raising the starting teacher, 190-day salary that was $36,000 in 2020-21 to $43,000 in this current school year, $45,000 for next year and $48,000 in the 2023-24 school year. Most teachers in the district are expected to see their pay increased by about $10,000 over the three-year period if the three-year plan is fulfilled.
Despite the board approving an overarching three-year plan in 2021, the board must approve the salaries yearly, based on assurances from district leaders that there is adequate revenue to support the raises.
Poore on Thursday called the board's support of the pay plan a reason for celebration and a big deal that will separate the district from others in Central Arkansas in terms of ability to hire staff.
The 2022-23 teacher pay plan has the potential to move the Little Rock district to fifth among the state's school districts in terms of the starting salary and third in the state for the top teacher salary of $76,995, Human Resources Executive Director Robert Robinson said.
Board member Jeff Wood thanked the district staff for its efforts on raising salaries, saying that as recently as 2019, Little Rock's teacher salaries ranked about 100th in the state.
Additionally, the plan provides a 2% percent step increase for each additional year of experience a teacher achieves. It includes a 2.5% increase for attaining specified levels of college credits beyond a bachelor's degree.
Support staff and administrators in the district will receive a 2.95% step increase if that is available based on their placement on the district's unified salary schedule.
The pay plan is expected to cost the district $8 million, according to data presented to the board.
The board approved the pay plan at a meeting in which Central High students made a presentation on the benefits of solar energy and asked the board to request district leaders to develop a proposal for incorporating the use of solar energy into the district's new construction projects.