Superintendent has option to stay 4 more years
Superintendent Nason "Tony" Authement has about two weeks to consider a four-year contract after the Rapides Parish School Board voted Tuesday to offer him a new one.
Several board members voiced concern that the discussion was premature, as the board is required to notify the superintendent 90 days before his expires this May. Authement entered a three-year contract with the board on April 27, 2013, at a "minimum base salary" of $160,000. It went into effect June 1, 2013, and expires May 31.
In fact, that was Darrell Rodriguez's reason for voting against the contract. Rodriguez was the only nay in the 8-1 vote.
"I wasn't voting against him," Rodriguez said. "I objected because we didn't have the meetings we said we'd have or do (his) evaluation."
A look at Supt. Authement's contract targets
Authement's first contract included targets, meeting Act 1 requirements for districts rated C or lower by the state Department of Education. Rapides Parish went from a C to a B last year when its district performance score improved more than 10 points.
But this contract includes a new objective — one sentence giving the superintendent the option to develop a diversity plan for the district. Sandra Franklin proposed a longer version of the diversity statement to the board, including suggestions that there be at least a certain number of "minorities other than white women," which are considered a minority, at various leadership positions (principals, assistant principals, etc.).
State releases high school letter grades; see Rapides scores
Wilton Barrios motioned to add the first line of the diversity statement to Authement's contract, but said the rest of it was "offensive to white people."
Franklin said the one-sentence policy wasn't really any different from what is in place and thought the longer version would "expand what we're doing and make it a conscious effort when making decisions." But other board members questioned the legality of including numbers that could be considered quotas.
One member of the public — Michelle Lacour, a parent — voiced concern that the board would consider a new contract before students' spring testing scores and school performance scores are released.
Authement has until Nov. 18 to accept or reject the four-year contract. Should he accept, the contract would begin June 1.