School Board to discuss proposed contract setting Superintendent Shane Andrew’s salary at $225,000 per year
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At their December 5 Regular Meeting, the Alachua County School Board will discuss a proposed contract for Superintendent Shane Andrew that would immediately begin paying him $225,000 per year, with a 3% or 4% raise on July 1, 2024. Andrew’s current contract runs through June 30, 2024, and pays $175,000, but that would be superseded by the new contract if approved by the School Board.
The draft contract can be found here.
The proposed contract guarantees Andrew employment through December 31, 2026, unless he is fired for cause, although he may be terminated from the Superintendent role without cause. On top of the base salary, he will receive $800 per month for business use of his car (former Superintendent Carlee Simon received $650 per month in her 2021 contract) and a cell phone for Board business.
The contract states that Andrew will receive insurance benefits until he is Medicare-eligible. The Board will provide a $225,000 life insurance policy (Simon’s was $100,000 with the stipulation that this would be provided “only if she is insurable, and the premium is reasonable as determined by the Board” – that stipulation is not in Andrew’s proposed contract) and health, dental, and vision insurance (Simon’s contract only provided health insurance).
Andrew is eligible for an additional salary of $2,000 per year for maintaining certification requirements by completing a continuing education course (Simon’s contract had the same provision).
The contract also provides that, on top of Florida Retirement System benefits, the Board will contribute to Andrew’s 403(b) supplemental retirement investment plan/account, including a “catch-up” contribution for those 50 or older. The deposits will become 100% vested on the day they are deposited. The Board will also make a lump-sum contribution for 2023 of $63,600. (Simon’s contract did not include any contributions to supplemental retirement accounts.)
Andrew will be evaluated by July 1 every year, and if he is rated effective, he will receive a 3% raise; if rated highly effective, he will receive a 4% raise. These increases begin on July 1, 2024, making his salary a minimum of $231,750 on July 1 if he is rated effective.
These so called politicians don’t care; they just throw tax money around. It isn’t out of their pockets, after all. That contract is unconscionable, in light of the horrible situation ACPS find themselves in. No discipline, in school or on buses. No improvement in attendance or grades, or the great divide. Half of what they want to give away is nothing less than a ‘golden parachute’.
Corruption at its finest! This is how mcgraw is paying back Andrews for hiring her friends and sorority sisters! We need DeSantis to do something about this!
Hey love, If God is for us who can be against us?….These people have the best interest of our school board and kids. For yearssssss we had people who I can guarantee didn’t know your child first name on campus .They are INVOLVED. That’s why you mad? LOLOLOLOLOL !!!! CONGRATS
Don’t be so naive. They still don’t know their names but I would sure like to hear who you think is “involved.”
If parents were more “involved,” we wouldn’t have the crime, truancy and failing kids/schools.
What an insult to all the hard working SBAC employees that can barely pay their bills.
So, he is making $175K now and that would increase to $225k? While he may be the best person for the job right now, that is absolutely insane and a slap in the face to the teachers and staff of SBAC. Do they normally get 3-4% raises each year if they are rated effective of highly effective? At best, his raises should mirror those of school board employees. Has anyone even looked at other counties to see where this salary compares?
Yes, please see my Facebook post (Anne Koterba) for a table of what other districts pay their appointed superintendents vs. enrollment and teacher pay. It’s public.
This contract proposal is criminal.
This is absolutely devastating to me as an ACPS employee. Teachers were offered a 1% raise initially, and the latest offer is 2.7%. Reasoning? There is no money. What’s really sad is that teachers in the district tutor and do a variety of extras for $20 an hour, to supplement our incomes. If a teacher decides to receive 21 paychecks instead of 20, even veterans must survive off of $1200 to $1500 after taxes twice a month. This is because we “give up” $600 to $700 a month, to have summer income. The real kicker is Andrew gets his funding effective immediately. Teachers must wait until the last day of June to get their summer money. Guess it has now manifested where all the interest off that money is going. ACPS needs to do better!
What a joke! What has he accomplished to warrant a $243,000 paycheck? Add another $63k to that for “catch-up.” If he can’t manage his pocketbook he has no place managing the district. Teachers and administrators put in more hours than he does, have more to show for it and get way less compensation. What a slap in the face to those employees.
If there’s one thing a bunch of Democrats can do is waste taxpayers’ monies for their own “projects” and/or “causes” or whatever else they choose to call them.
Can’t help but wonder if he’s doing something in the district and you can bet it ain’t sitting around reading Bible verses.
Speak to Kay Abbitt she’s the lefty swing vote in this.
Simon had a PhD…I guess that’s why she didn’t get this bank.
I hear Bridget or Christian Zeigler might soon be available for y’all Republican/maga family values book banners.
What is he doing to make that raise? I don’t feel that he needs it. The teachers need the raise not him. The bus drivers need a raise not him. We can talk about this till we are blue in the face.
Heck there are teachers that can’t even get paid on time because they have idiots doing the payroll. So much wrong with our schools.
Maybe instead of paying him more money give back to the schools and bring programs back that they have taken a way.
So funny when they say they have no funding for programs. Or maybe buy more supplies for the schools so the teacher don’t have to pull money out of their own pockets because the schools will not buy it for the teachers.
Lord have mercy I can find many ways to spend that money then give that idiot more money.
How many of you unionized Democrat, or Republican teachers got a 28% pay increase this past year? What about an 800 dollar car allowance? $1000 for maintaining your professional certifications?Catch up on your retirement account? How about a guaranteed pay increase of 3 – 4% for doing your job?
Still feeling like your elected board members care about you? Looks like the superintendent gets the diamonds, you get the shaft.
…not even a cricket. Not even from the union president.
The ACEA (union) did issue a press release yesterday, with a quote from President Carmen Ward to say they disagreed with this proposed contract. It is posted in multiple places on Facebook. She said “Alachua County needs to settle soon on a fair ACROSS the BOARD percentage raise for all employees. A fair raise will have a positive impact on employee morale and numerous employee shortages. A raise at the top at this point will do more harm than good.” To be clear, not all five board members are in support of this proposal.
Will the salary be enough to raise the abysmal reading & math scores or more of the same gender queer woke BS?
Kool aid not good for ya.
You’re sadly getting played by Christian and Brigette Ziegler, Falwell Jr and Roger Stone types talking family values while they are eagerly swapping wives, three ways and voyeurism.
Possibly volunteering in your local school might help with the abysmal testing results. Oh, let me guess, you’re too busy watching Fox or Newsmax for that.
How about a deal with performance objectives? We’ll hold 50K in escrow that will be released when a ten percent gain in our lowest readers is achieved. Such a raise is ludicrous when our teachers are paid so pathetically low – and that’s not to mention retirees.
Great suggestion, tie to some tangible and positive.
Too bad it’s illegal to tie some things and get rid of them. That would be both tangible an positive.
I thought they were split on even retaining him. Schools are still failing on the verge of closing. Teacher staffing and morale is at a low. Let’s have some metrics to justify this. Our teachers deserve better than this. I would like to see him reject this offer. And fight for this money to be spent on those doing the work.
The salary seems very high compared to the average salaries that I’ve seen.
However, the fact that school board members Sarah Rockwell and Tina Certain are against him, and the Gainesville Sun seems to be trying to smear him, suggests to me that he might be the right guy for the job.
I’ll hold my judgement for now to see if Shane can earn that big paycheck. The only thing that matters now are actions and results.
Why should we the people give $50,000 more to Shane superintendent that does not care that a staff member has mentally abused a child in one of their schools and the parent have reached out by email and has had no contact from him but he wants to propose $50,000 more to his contract. That is insane. The teachers don’t even get paid a pinch of what he gets paid and he’s asking for more be a better superintendent!!
Thank you 🙏
If the Board had any character and financial competency at all they would offer him $185k w/ the car allowance. He can use that overinflated, overpriced salary to do his own catch up for retirement on his own.
If he didn’t like it he could leave. I’ll bet he would find a way to graciously accept their offer.
Check out the minutes for the board meeting tonight (12/05). In addition to Mr. Andrew’s proposed raise, they are proposing another 5 administrative positions at an average of about $100,000 a piece—but they’re out of money:)
They may be out of money but they know the residents still have some left over. While they’re making sure we decrease our savings, they’re increasing theirs.
Something’s not right.
He probably needs the raise for private security detail, these days in politicized schools of America.
$225,000+ a year for what?
This is what the current SBAC thought of the Interim Superintendent at their 1 May 2023 Workshop: https://alachuachronicle.com/school-board-discusses-superintendents-leadership-abilities-and-leak-of-his-self-evaluation/
What have you done for me lately?
After more than a year of Interim Superintendent Andrews (named interim at SBAC Meeting 15 Mar 22), and a full year of the current SBAC, under the leadership of Certain (Board Chairman, now McGraw since November 23), and McNealy (2nd consecutive year as Vice Chairman), what has he, and they accomplished? A big fat ZERO! Each week there is a NEW BURNING PRIORITY! ABC Reports/Scores, Discipline, Rezoning, LGBTQ safety needs and declarations, teachers’ salaries, high number of vacancies in teacher and bus driver positions, Transportation, Strategic Plan, Budget! Each meeting surfaces a different fire to deflect from their overall goal of throwing money into their own pockets!
The SBAC (the present board was elected in November 2022) did not provide the Superintendent with a list of agreed to priorities until 5 Sep 23. How do you evaluate someone without goals?
The priorities from that 5 Sep 23 meeting:
Board Consensus:
Rezoning
Strategic Plan
Improving reading scores
Behavior
Transportation
Here is the ACPS link just in case: https://go.boarddocs.com/fl/alaco/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=CLWLRD5670C3
The current Superintendent is responsible for the rezoning plan, and he named DEI Chief Dr. Edwards to lead this critical effort that affects all students in ACPS. Dr. Edwards briefed a fiscally responsible plan to the SBAC on 16 Aug 23 based on what she thought were the boards priorities. None of the Commissioners liked what they heard. The meeting notes reflected: “School board members concerned about diversity.” Perhaps the plan did not fit their personal agenda? Or, it is simply more smoke and mirrors which seems to be how this SBAC operates in order to say much but do nothing. Empty promises! Dr. Edwards asked the SBAC for their priorities.
Here are the minutes from that meeting: https://go.boarddocs.com/fl/alaco/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=CLWLRD5670C3
The updated rezoning plan has not relieved the current overpopulation in desired schools, nor the under population in “undesired schools.” So the current Interim Superintendent and the SBAC will kick this can down the road right along with behavior/discipline, academic scores, strategic plan, and transportation. I can only imagine, more smoke screens will follow!
Has the current SBAC approved a plan to address student behavior?
Ms. McGraw presented her “Enough is Enough” plan for a Transition School on 9 Feb 23. Since then, the current SBAC has done NOTHING to address student behavior! Their lack of action is a serious danger to any child attending ACPS! What demographic do you think commits the most behavior infractions? Certain, McNealy, and McGraw, will never take action to remove that demographic from the student population, enroll them in a learning facility for students with behavioral issues, so the remaining students can lean without fear of disruption/aggression by that demographic!
McGraw stated at the 17 Jan 23 SBAC Meeting (credit to the Alachua Chronicle) that the SBAC cannot do anything about academics until behavior is under control:
https://alachuachronicle.com/we-cant-do-anything-about-academics-until-we-get-this-behavior-under-control-school-board-members-discuss-their-vision-for-the-district/
The Alachua County Educator’s Association head stated on 22 April 22 that students are maybe more violent than they have ever been (credit to Alachua Chronicle):
https://alachuachronicle.com/teachers-union-president-students-are-maybe-more-violent-than-they-have-ever-been/
Has the current SBAC gone to Idylwild and Lake Forest Elementary Schools to review facilities, talk to the Principal, senior staff, and most of all, the teachers? This is not a rhetorical question. I would like to know if they have really visited these schools and observed the great work by teachers and administrators, and the fact that a high population of the same demographic population as above contributes to extremely high student absenteeism percentage and how they are trying to correct this! The below data is compiled from current ACPS and Florida Department of Education webpage:
https://www.sbac.edu/dataanalytics
https://edudata.fldoe.org/
Feel free to dig through the available data yourself.
Are Idylwild and Lake Forest really different from the other Elementary Schools in ACPS? Please review the latest ABC Reports and Scores and you will see the impact of this same demographic dragging the scores down to unacceptable levels. The previous and current SBAC and Superintendents have failed Idylwild and Lake Forest Elementary Schools. They should have reduced the Teacher: Student ratio years ago! Here is the link to the latest ABC Score sheet:
https://www.sbac.edu/Page/2556
Here is the so called Gap between students of the three main ethnicities:
ACPS ES Overall Gap (%)
White 68
Math Black 22
Hispanic 49
White 70
English Black 25
Hispanic 50
White 70
Science Black 19
Hispanic 50
White 84
Soc Studies Black 35
Hispanic 51
White 90.3
Graduation Rate Black 76.8
Hispanic 84
Data based on 2021 – 2022 reports
As you can see, White and Hispanic students constantly outperform Black students. What does that mean?
The average ACPS Teach to Student ratio is 1 Teacher per 16 Students; no school has more students to teacher ratio. It may be that these schools that are “failing” need a much smaller teacher to student ratio (and incentives for teachers to accept positions at these schools).
Or, the Interim Superintendent and SBAC may want to revisit a “Spot rezoning.” Reassign students so no school has more than 30% – 40% population of black students. Racist? No. This demographic has the most behavioral incidences, the most absenteeism, the worst ABC Scores, and resulting worst “Gap”, so assigning them evenly between all ACPS schools would definitely have a negative effect on high performing schools, but would raise the scores at low performing schools significantly, lower behavioral incidences at those same schools, and lower absenteeism at those schools. Option 2 is to rescue these same students from homes where their parental support is lacking and place them in a (to be constructed) dorm for single children.
And this Interim Superintendent is actually asking for, and being considered for, this obscene salary and benefits package? Say it ain’t so!
Save our students, pay our teachers an actual wage they can live on in Alachua County! Don’t waste funds on the Superintendent, the SBAC, nor not the union.
Interim Superintendent, SBAC Members: Please feel free to resign effective immediately to help save our students!
Here is how disjointed the current SBAC is when it comes to priorities for ACPS when discussion was requested from then SBAC Chairman Certain:
From 5 Sep 23 ACPS SBAC Meeting Minutes (published on the ACPS SBAC website):
Action: 2. Board Priorities (Certain)
Dr. Rockwell- 3-5 year range
improve reading scores for under-performing students with reading plan submitted to the state
Reduce overall behavior referrals, PBIS
procedural handbooks for each department, procedures are being followed
Mrs. Abbitt
student achievement, lowest quartile and magnets, expanding programs
transportation
Dr. McNealy
rezoning
continue to apply academic rigore (misspelled in the notes so I did not correct it) throughout all the schools and closing achievement gap
Mrs. McGraw
addressing behavior
reading scores and subgroups
rezoning
Transportation
Mrs. Certain
Rezoning
Strategic Plan
Improving reading scores, not having any D schools
Budget
Board Consensus
Rezoning
Strategic Plan
Improving reading scores
Behavior
Transportation