NOTE: This version was revised as of Sept. 22
ORANGE – On Sept. 13, the Orange School Board took a vote on a contract, but one member brought up some valid concerns.
School Board Member Tyrone Tarver voiced his concerns on whether or not Schools Superintendent Dr. Gerald Fitzhugh II should receive a 5 year, $1.6 Million contract extension, even though he still has two years left on the existing one.
Tarver was the only Board Member to make any comments before the Orange School Board voted. No other Board Members offered any comments to justify approval of the contract.
Here now is the case that Mr. Tarver in opposition to the deal:
“I am not in favor of this contract extension two years ahead of time. This current contract is supposed to run through June 30, 2025. “I see no reason to make the extension right now.
“From a public perspective, we are doing this when it is not necessary. We have teacher contract negotiations coming up. To make this $1.6 million dollar contract extension right now, and not make a priority an early addressing of the teachers’ contract, which honestly, if it had been addressed earlier, might have curbed some of the teacher retention issues that we have, I don’t think this is warranted.
“There definitely was not any student achievement for the year prior. We have the biggest SAT score drop in the state. Approval of this contract will make the Superintendent the fifth highest paid Superintendent in the state.
“The past four years, there is no record of student achievement. There has actually been a regression of student achievement.
“I know COVID and some other things came into play, but COVID did not come into play in every last school district in the state. During COVID, some districts actually held serve with their student achievement and did not make drops, and there are a handful that actually made slight improvements. So, I do not want the COVID excuse to be a catch-all reason for us regressing as far as our Student Achievement totals.
“Last year, we didn’t meet any of the goals that the board voted on. There were documents presented over the summer to the board. And it is crystal clear on those documents, not the midterm reports, not any committee reports, but the end-of-year reports which is what we should all be basing our determinations on, there were no goals met.
“We’ve had two bad yearly audits in a row. Two years ago, we actually had a missing of a bond payment that ended up dropping the district’s credit rating.
“I’ve mentioned in previous school board meetings, our average years of teacher experience in the district is one of the lowest in the state. That is definitely a result of bad teacher retention.
“I submitted a request and received legal invoices of the district. I am also seeing excessive spending on the part of the administration being in contact with the attorney. There was one month where contact with the attorney was made almost every day. Some of the line items that I saw were extremely unnecessary.
“Keeping in mind the drop and regression of student achievement in the district, again, this contract extension is definitely not warranted. I see no reason to not wait until after the teacher contract is negotiated and completed. Also, I see no reason to not wait at least another year until we see if student achievement goals are met, and state student growth goals are met as well.
“I could talk about a lot more things, but I believe that I have said more than enough to not move forward with this contract extension right now. It is way too much money. Since the first year that this Superintendent has started, he started at $180,000 dollars, and within three years, he has gotten an $80,000 dollar bump to $260,000 dollars for the first year (of the contract extension). It’s too much, too soon, and not warranted on any of the fronts that I mentioned previously.”
Despite the points given, Board President Shawneque Johnson, Board Member David Armstrong, Board Member Samantha Crockett, Board Member Siaka Sherif, Board Member Fatimah Turner, and Board Member Jeffrey Wingfield all voted “Yes”. Tarver was the only Board Member to vote “No”. Board Member Derrick Henry was late for the meeting and missed the vote. Board Vice President Sueann Gravesande abstained.
No public comments were made. Usually, public comments are made after the Board recesses to Executive Session, and comes back to public session around 7:30 p.m. And this is usually the time that the public arrives for the portion of the meeting. The Board conducted discussion and the vote for the superintendent contract extension before the public arrived shortly after 6:05 p.m. Mr. Tarver strongly objected to changing the agenda of the meeting and conducting the vote at this time, since no one from the public was present to have the opportunity to speak.
