Lake County’s School Board voted Tuesday to extend the contract of Superintendent Dr. Susan Moxley.
Several community members and even some board members questioned the timing of the 2:30 p.m. meeting when parents and teachers couldn’t attend. There was little advance notice of the special meeting.
School board member Bill Mathias brought up the idea of renewing Moxley’s contract at the end of the last regular Lake County School Board meeting last week. He said the school board needed to act now to bring stability to the district.
However, the two new school board members who took over in November argued they hadn't had time yet to figure out their goals for a superintendent.
Mathias told those who opposed the meeting deciding on the superintendent's contract "wasn't a democracy" and said the public spoke when they re-elected him and elected two teachers who weren’t outspoken against the superintendent in their campaign.
School board member Marc Dodd said there was a reason for not speaking out against his boss at the time.
“There’s just so much trust that’s been eroded, the perceptions of being able to speak out, the perception of repercussions for providing input,” Dodd said, also voicing concerns about the district's drop to a "C" rating and more problems with class size overages.
"I feel like I’ve already been tried and convicted and I’ve not even had two conversations, so I just think this board needs to vote their conscience and we will move on from there,” Moxley said, refusing to explain the district's class size problems before the vote.
The board voted 4-1 to extend her contract by two years at $156,700 a year. It’s a 5 percent pay decrease, but has the opportunity to increase by up to $17,000 with incentives.
The board also decided they would not give her those incentives unless Moxley gets at least an average review. They’ll work out the criteria for how she’ll be evaluated at a future meeting.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Moxley explained this year’s class size overages were because of 400 extra students moving to Lake County. She said she expected the district’s final overages would go down to closer to 40 students over the cap. State data sent out last week said 361 Lake County classes were over the cap. In Central Florida, only 10 Marion County and one Brevard classes are over voter approved maximums.