Milwaukee School Board Reopens Superintendent’s Contract
By Alan J. Borsuk, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Sep. 29–The specifics were absent, but the voting was clear as the Milwaukee School Board decided to reopen the contract of Superintendent William Andrekopoulos.
The overall message was that Andrekopoulos continues to have support from a majority of the board. That suggested that the new negotiations could lead to an agreement to extend his contract into 2007.
The board voted 6-1 just before midnight Tuesday to authorize School Board President Ken Johnson to negotiate with Andrekopoulos. The decision came after eight hours of closed discussions over the last two weeks by the board on Andrekopoulos’ performance, including more than two hours earlier Tuesday evening.
The vote did not spell out any specifics for what the board wanted in reopening the contract, except for an agreement to allow Andrekopoulos to use a flexible spending account for paying health care deductibles, which other Milwaukee Public Schools employees already have. That is not in his current contract.
His current contract expires next August, and he has often said he would like to serve six years as superintendent, which would take him to summer 2008. Because of state law limiting the length of superintendent contracts, the most he could be offered now is probably a one-year extension, until 2007.
Of the six board members voting to negotiate with Andrekopoulos, five (Johnson, Jeff Spence, Barbara Horton, Joe Dannecker and Danny Goldberg) are strong supporters of the superintendent, and there has been no indication their support is wavering. That would be a majority of the nine-member board.
The sixth vote was from Tom Balistreri, who has criticized the superintendent often. Peter Blewett voted “present,” because, he said later, he was unclear on what approval meant, and Jennifer Morales was not present.
During the brief public session that included the vote, Johnson refused to provide clarification of what the goals of the negotiations would be. “”I will not reveal what was discussed in executive session,” he told board members.
In an interview Wednesday, Johnson provided no specifics but said he thought Andrekopoulos had done well in the hours of discussion of his job performance. He said board members wanted to see some changes in the contract’s provisions linking Andrekopoulos’ evaluation to specific indicators of MPS success. Johnson declined to discuss whether a contract extension or pay increase was likely.
Andrekopoulos said Wednesday that he also did not want to discuss specifics, but that he was encouraged by the board’s vote. “I have always said I wanted to make a long term commitment to the district and I’m eager to continue to work with the district to benefit the children of this community,” he said.
Other than on the board, the political going has been somewhat tougher for Andrekopoulos as he enters his fourth year as superintendent. A survey released last week by the Milwaukee teachers union showed he got low grades from teachers on numerous aspects of job performance, averaging a “D,” and morale among teachers in the district appears low in the aftermath of the administration winning in an arbitration of a 2 1/2-year contract dispute.
Any changes in his contract will require approval by the full board. Johnson said there is no urgency to the negotiations because Andrekopoulos’ contract does not expire for 11 months.
—–
To see more of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.jsonline.com.
Copyright (c) 2005, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.