Schools

Grosse Pointe School Board Passes New Superintendent Contract

In a 5-2 vote, the school board approves a 2 1/2-year contract package nearing a $700,000 value for the district's next superintendent, Thomas Harwood.

A contract calling for the new superintendent, Thomas Harwood, to receive a package totaling near $700,000 over 2 1/2 years received approval Monday by the Board—but not without questions. 

All of the board members agreed they recognized and accepted that Harwood would be the next superintendnet of the district, and some even congratulated him—a noteable recognition after earlier this summer. 

Harwood will take over the role of superintendent in January after . Klein has been the district's superintendent for nearly 15 years and also was voted in on a 4-3 vote. 

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A contract negotiation committee made up of Brendan Walsh, John Steininger and Joan Dindoffer created an initial draft of the contract. And Harwood accepted the contract approved by the board Monday more than a week ago, according to an attorney involved in the process, John Gierak.

The contract calls for Harwood to receive a salary of $175,000 annually, Walsh said. The total package including health and other benefits is valued at or slightly less than $700,000, he said. 

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Board member Fred Minturn said Monday that his questions had nothing to do with Harwood personally, but were related to whether the district was making a sound decision. 

The contract, Minturn said, is "a sweetheart contract with a golden parachute attached in a time the district can't afford it." He said he's never seen a deal like this in his 30-plus years as a businessman, and questioned several aspects, including the board's speedy approval.

Normally, Minturn said, the board reviews contracts during one meeting and then approves them during the following meeting. In this case, he received a copy of the contract Friday, and said he believes this was an effort to be less than transparent. Then the review and approval were scheduled all in Monday's meeting, he said.

He also questioned why Harwood's contract does not involve concessions in the event the district's financial balance sheet dips below a certain level. Such a clause is in the contracts of all other employees, he said. He also questioned why the contract allows for Harwood to step away from it, but there is no provision for the district to step away.

Gierak emphasized his 35 years in handling school employee contracts in answering Minturn's questions.

Among his answers, Gierak said, the developement of a separate and distinct contract for the superintendent is typically what is done, and even in other districts that include concessions in teachers and staff contracts, similar concessions are not included in a superintendent's contract. 

As for the quick review and passage, Gierak said most school boards prefer to get the contract signed and the board's approval quickly to cement the deal.

As for a clause allowing the district to step away, Gierak said such a clause is not necessary because the board has to vote to renew the contract. Generally school districts avoid having boards vote to terminate a contract because such a vote could become political and be viewed as a lack of confidence in the administrator, Gierak said. 

Minturn said that while he understands the scope of Gierak's experience, maybe none of that should matter because there is a movement to change the way schools operate from what has been the norm.

Meanwhile, Walsh—another board member who voted against Harwood—said he planned to support the contract to move the district forward.

His personal goal is for the Grosse Pointe Public School District to be the best in the country, he said, and the only way to achieve that is to leave the past in the past. His vote, he said, was to show that he is "all in. My committment is there."

Dindoffer highlighted other changes made in the contract as compared to what is in the current contract with Klein:

  • the elimination of sick/vacation time rollover
  • the implementation of merit pay rather than longevity pay

"There are some improvments from a district standpoint ...," Dindoffer said. 

Gafa voted against the contract, saying she disagreed with the selection process and felt lengthier, more open discussion about all of the candidates among the board members would have been more appropriate. Her vote was not related to Harwood personally, she said, but the selection process, which she described as flawed.

"This is a $700,000 committment. In my five years on the board, we've never made a committment like that to anyone," Minturn said, noting the current superintendent contract is only good for one year at a time. "We don't have a committment like that to anyone."

Minturn and Gafa both voted aginst the contract, while the others, including Walsh, voted in favor of it—a change from the usual split among the board members.


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