The School Board for the Pulaski County Special School District voted 5-0 Tuesday to postpone until June a decision on a raise and contract extension for Superintendent Charles McNulty.
The vote in public came after the board -- with two of its members absent -- met in closed, executive session for about 50 minutes.
McNulty, 59, is completing his fourth year as chief executive of the nearly 12,000-student school district.
The board's package of agenda materials included a draft contract for 2022-25 that called for McNulty's annual salary for this 2021-22 school year to increase from $215,000 to $245,700.
School Board President Lindsey Gustafson noted early in Tuesday's meeting that the board and McNulty had agreed verbally to contract terms in April after meeting in executive session on the issue at least twice earlier in the year.
Gustafson said the board had since been presented with three written drafts.
Jessica Duff, a spokesperson for the district, said after the meeting that the multiple drafts were the result of corrections to format, spelling and a date in the six-page document.
The proposed $30,750 raise to $245,700 for this school year is part of the compensation provision in the draft.
"The salary to be paid to Superintendent effective May 10, 2022, shall be at an annual rate of $245,700.00 prorated over the term of this 244-day annual contract until it terminates and payable in twenty-six (26) equal biweekly installments," the draft states.
The draft contract does not include specific salary amounts for the forthcoming 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years.
"Effective each July 1... the salary to be paid to Superintendent shall be increased by the sum of the increase in the base salary schedule of any employee group in the district, if any, and an amount equal to the experience step awarded to the district's certified personnel" who are the state-licensed educators in the system, according to the proposal.
Absent from the meeting and the vote Tuesday night were board members Eli Keller and Tina Ward.
Those voting to postpone consideration on a final contract were Gustafson, Stephen Delaney, Shelby Thomas, Laurel Tait and Heather Smith. Delaney made the motion and Smith seconded it.
McNulty was selected in April 2018 for the superintendent's job that began that July. His initial annual salary was $205,000 with a $10,000 annuity.
In January 2020, the board voted to add the $10,000 annuity payment to the superintendent's salary, making McNulty's annual salary $215,000 a year, the amount listed on the district's website as his current pay.
Prior to coming to Arkansas, McNulty was assistant superintendent for educational services in the Waterloo, Iowa, Community School District.
Other provisions of the proposed 2022-25 contract include up to $2,400 per year for expenses and a $600 monthly vehicle allowance, plus life and health insurance benefits and the use of district-owned technology.
McNulty's wife, Yaa Appiah-McNulty, is also a district employee, earning $93,192 as principal at Robinson Middle School.