Miami Herald: Broward School Board to vote on extending superintendent’s contract
Aug 18, 2009
Posted on Tue, Aug. 18, 2009
BY PATRICIA MAZZEI
Broward School Board members will vote Tuesday to extend Superintendent Jim Notter’s contract by three years, a week after the board agreed to the move in principle following Notter’s positive evaluation.
The extension would prolong Notter’s contract until June 2014, with a possibility to extend until 2015.
Notter received praise in his evaluation from a wide range of people, including board members, principals, parents, business and community members and most teachers and labor representatives. The Broward Teachers Union, a harsh critic of the district’s budget and teacher layoffs this summer, repeated its call that Notter be fired.
Board members said holding on to Notter would bring stability during a turbulent economy.
Lengthening the contract would not come with a raise, unless other district staff also get one — something not in the plans this year.
Notter makes $299,000 a year. He voluntarily cut $26,000 from his compensation last month. The 23-year Broward schools employee was appointed superintendent in 2007, about a year after becoming the district’s interim superintendent.
Miami-Dade School Board members lengthened Superintendent Alberto Carvalho’s contract by three years — until June 2013 — earlier this month, also without a raise.
In other business at the meeting, the Broward board will:
- Rehire 39 teachers and 11 noninstructional employees who had been laid off in June.
- Allow FPL to install a ground-mounted solar cell at Deerfield Beach Middle School to teach students about solar energy.
- Reward two employees — an elementary teacher and a maintenance worker — for proposing ideas to save money that the district plans to adopt.
Kathie Herrera, a second-grade teacher at Stephen Foster Elementary, will receive $5,000 for suggesting that district administrators work twice a month as substitute teachers, saving the district $200,000. Tom Giglio will receive $500 for proposing to use larger vehicles to drop off supplies at schools, saving $5,000 on driving time, vehicle wear and cost of gas.