Board of Education sets salary, timeline for new superintendent
Posted on Wednesday, September 17, 2008
The Fayetteville School District Board of Education decided the salary of the next superintendent will be around $ 200, 000.
Board members met to discuss the timeline for obtaining a new superintendent and the salary they will offer the next administrator during a special meeting Tuesday.
The board is seeking a new superintendent because current Superintendent Bobby New is scheduled to retire at the end of the school year.
The deadline for Ray and Associates, the Iowa-based consulting firm handling the search, to receive application materials will be Jan. 21, 2009.
From the list of applications, the firm will then present a list of semifinalists to the board on Feb. 4, 2009.
Starting the following week, the board will begin interviewing the semifinalists.
Following some discussion, the board concluded that it would advertise the position as having a salary of around $ 200, 000.
It probably needs to be in the range of $ 200, 000, said William Newman of Ray and Associates. Our advice is get a salary out there and be willing to pay it.
New reportedly made $ 196, 347 last year. He also received a 2-percent raise this year as part of the salary increases approved by the board at a July meeting.
On average, superintendent salaries increase 4 to 5 percent annually, Newman said.
Newman provided the board with a list of 11 districts six from Missouri and five from other states that had recently hired new superintendents. Their salaries ranged from $ 179, 000 to $ 218, 000, and the district enrollments ranged from 1, 000 to 18, 800 students.
Enrollment does not control the salary, Newman said.
The 1, 000-student district, Brentwood, Mo., had one of the highest salaries at $ 214, 620 this year.
One of the districts on the list, Galveston, Texas, had an enrollment of 9, 400, and the superintendent makes $ 183, 473. Newman said he believed the superintendent agreed to that salary because she was an internal hire.
Leading up to the meeting, Newman reportedly interviewed the board members individually by phone about district issues and the qualifications they wanted in a superintendent.
Based on those conversations, Newman offered to schedule a team-building workshop with the board members. He said the ongoing debate over the future of the high school and its location seems to be an issue the next superintendent will have to deal with.
On the high school issue, Newman said it appears that were kind of languishing because were not getting to that swiftly enough.
Newman said one of the things he was impressed with about the board, though, is that even if a major decision is made by a mixed vote, most board members get behind the final decision once it is made.
We can disagree as a board and still move forward with a majority opinion, he said.
All seven of the current board members attended the meeting.
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