APS board approves Superintendent Erroll Davis’ 18-month contract extension
If he serves out his entire term, Davis would remain the APS superintendent through December 2014.
The Atlanta Board of Education voted 7-2 yesterday in favor of extending Superintendent Erroll Davis’ contract for an additional 18 months.
After holding a divisive meeting that lasted over six hours, the board finally agreed to renew the interim APS superintendent’s contract, with two conditions that could limit the actual length of his service. The board added in a pair of trigger clauses, allowing them to end Davis’ contract with 90 day’s notice if either they a permanent superintendent or with a simple majority vote.
“If you decide I need to go, I go,” Davis said to APS board members. “I’ve got 90 days, and it only takes a 5-4 vote to do that. If you decide to hire a new superintendent you also can say its time to go.”
The 18-month extension will be tacked on to Davis’ existing contact, which was set to expire this upcoming June. If he serves out his entire term, he would remain the APS superintendent through December 2014.
“There’ll be the six months on his first contract, eighteen month additional extension and we have given ourselves flexibility within if that time if we hire a new superintendent to terminate the contract with a 90 day notice,” Chairman Reuben McDaniel said.
The APS Board had previously postponed a vote on Davis’ contract several times after many thought he had mishandled the replacement of North Atlanta High School’s leadership back in October.
While the issues surrounding NAHS didn’t specifically arise during last night’s meeting, Davis alluded to his decision two months ago in comments he made to the APS board.
“Chief executives have to have the freedom and opportunity to make decisions on a unencumbered basis, but we have to acknowledge that there are decisions with great community impact where it behooves us to contact the board, but we can’t always do that,” Davis said. “You learn those things by experience. There are some lessons learned.”
Atlanta Public Schools live blogged much of the yesterday’s meeting, which you can read here.