Three-year contract proposed for new Columbia Public Schools superintendent

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Columbia Board of Education is expected to vote Monday on a three-year contract for a new superintendent.

The board will also decide whether to make shortening the length of superintendent contracts a legislative priority.

The contract, if approved, will pay Jeff Klein $255,000 in its first year. He could get an increase of as much as 6% in year two and year three.

Klein is set to be the district's first permanent superintendent hire since Brian Yearwood left in November, citing family reasons. Retired CPS superintendent Chris Belcher has been leading the district on an interim basis.

Since leaving Columbia, Yearwood has been a finalist for a school administrator job in a Kansas district.

Yearwood was paid the remainder of his contract -- about $667,000 -- in a separation agreement with the district.

CPS spokeswoman Michelle Baumstark wrote in response to emailed questions that the district previously used a contract template that included severance for the duration of the contract if the employee left -- a common feature of such contracts. The district has now updated its contract to change the severance terms to one year of pay, she wrote.

"That change, among others, represents the Board’s desire to be fiscally responsible to taxpayers and not find themselves in a situation like what occurred with the requirements outlined in the previous superintendent’s contract," Baumstark wrote.

The board will also consider adding a legislative priority related to superintendent contracts. The measure, if approved, would mean the board supports state law that would shorten the maximum duration of superintendent contracts from three years to two years.

Both items appear on the agenda for Monday's board meeting, which begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Aslin Administration Building.