The King George School Board last week held a closed meeting for the sole purpose of evaluating division Superintendent Candace Brown’s performance and discussing her contract.
The public is not privy to the actual evaluations by members of the School Board because the evaluation is a personnel matter and exempt from public disclosure.  

Following last year’s closed session evaluation, the School Board publicly announced that Brown’s evaluation was completed and no changes would be made to her existing contract.

Brown’s current contract runs until June 30, 2012.
Brown was present throughout the 35-minute closed meeting on Dec. 8 with four School Board members at the meeting.
Rick Randall was absent, prompting the other members before the meeting started to ask each other if any had heard from him.
The meeting date had been scheduled nearly two months previous, during a meeting on Oct. 13, but Chairman Lynn Pardee said she had called each member the day before as a reminder.

EVALUATION    
School Boards are required by state law to evaluate their division superintendents on an annual basis.
The evaluation instrument used by the School Board is a public document. The evaluation tool is confined to a general assessment of Brown’s effectiveness in the following areas:  Planning and Assessment, Instructional Leadership, Safety, Management of Resources, Communications With the School Board, Communications Within the School Division, Community Relations and Professionalism.

BROWN’S CONTRACT    
Brown’s current contract was ratified on October 22, 2008.
At that time, a majority of the School Board voted to ratify a previously-voided employment contract for Brown that had originally been approved the year before, on Dec. 12, 2007.
That contract had later been voided after the School Board came to realize through published newspaper reports they had approved it illegally.  That’s because it was voted on after an election but before two newly-elected members took office, which is against state law.  
The existing contract also has some flaws and does not conform to the School Board’s own policy.
That School Board policy CBD states, “The contract shall set forth the superintendent’s compensation and benefit package.”  
But the contract mentions no amount for salary.
As Superintendent, Brown is the highest paid employee in the division, with her salary listed at $128,292.  
In addition to her salary, Brown’s contract states she also gets “a minimum of $10,000 per year into a tax-sheltered annuity or deferred compensation plan.” She also receives $7,000 a year for an automobile allowance, along with premiums paid by the division for her full health insurance and life insurance from the Virginia Retirement System.
Brown also gets 20 days of vacation per year, with unused annual leave to be accumulated to a maximum of 30 days.