Deadline looms, but neither Unified's Baumgardt nor Pulliam express concern
BY PAUL SLOTH
Journal Times | Posted: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 12:00 am
RACINE - It has been a month since the Racine Unified School Board picked Barbara Moore Pulliam to be the school district's next superintendent, and there is still no signed
contract.
With the clock ticking and Pulliam's tentative start date drawing closer, School Board President Tony Baumgardt said he hopes to have a draft of a contract ready soon, but he would not hint at when details might be released, or what any of the details might be.
"Barbara and I are both committed to getting this thing done, to make sure that this contract is a good thing for both the community and her," Baumgardt said Wednesday.
"We're in a negotiation. Like any negotiation, we need to keep the details under wraps until we're to the point where we're in agreement."
School Board members have said that they would like to have the new superintendent start by July 1.
The School Board will discuss the terms of Pulliam's contract in closed session before voting on it during a public meeting.
School Board members have said that the district will likely pay the next superintendent close to what it paid Hicks. When he left the district, Unified paid Hicks $195,550 in salary and benefits anually.
Pulliam has been back to Racine since her initial interviews with the board in April, said Baumgardt, who has met with Pulliam and spent some time discussing the contract.
Pulliam also spent some of her time with Baumgardt questioning him about the district, he said.
Pulliam is tying up loose ends in Jonesboro, Ga., outside of Atlanta, where she last worked and lived, including trying to sell her house.
"The bottom line is we really started getting down to negotiations Thursday or Friday, before the holiday," Pulliam said by phone from Jonesboro, where she was collecting boxes, preparing for her move to Racine.
"I believe it's going to go real quick. The real important thing is, I've got to find a place to live," she said.
Baumgardt advised against reading in to the delay in finalizing a deal with Pulliam.
Nobody is getting cold feet, he said, nor is there fighting over terms. Up to this point, getting lawyers for both sides to meet has been an issue, Baumgardt said.
While Baumgardt has some say in the negotiations as board president, the details of the contract are in the lawyers' hands now, Baumgardt said.
"Am I concerned about the timeline? Definitely, I would have liked to have had it done by now," Baumgardt said. "It's taking longer than all of us thought."
In April, the board voted 7-2 to hire Pulliam. The board's longest serving member, Julie McKenna, and Dennis Wiser, the board's newest member, cast the two dissenting votes.
Pulliam will replace former Superintendent Tom Hicks, who resigned in August 2007 after an investigation into a contract he negotiated with a private consulting firm.
Pulliam resigned as the leader of the 52,000-student Clayton County, Ga., school district in July 2007 after 3½ years on the job.
Her $145,000 severance package from Clayton County Schools was scheduled to end last month, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Unified negotiated a severance package for Hicks that totaled $168,000 in salary and benefits. His contract expires June 30.
Interim Superintendent Jack Parker has promised to stay as long as necessary to help with Pulliam's transition in to her new job. Parker's contract expires June 30.