A member of the Barrington School Committee is questioning how information about the Superintendent of Schools job listing was changed after the Committee took an official vote on the matter. 

During the Jan. 18 meeting, TJ Peck asked fellow Committee members how the salary range for the Superintendent position went from a “range of $265,000 to $290,000” to a single figure of $265,000. 

“I believe there was a very specific motion we voted on. Why did we change it?” Peck asked Committee members and administrators during the Jan. 18 meeting. 

Just two weeks earlier, Committee members had voted unanimously (5-0) to include the specific range of “$265,000 to $290,000” with the job listing when it went live on the consultant’s website. Committee members were following the recommendation of a hired consultant, who suggested the higher pay range in order to attract national candidates.

Peck said individual members of the School Committee cannot undermine the process. Peck said there was a motion and a vote that set the salary range.

School Committee member Megan Douglas offered an explanation:

“I reached out after the fact, because when we had that meeting we did not have complete information. Information was shared after. I was told that Superintendent salaries start at $200,000 in the state of Rhode Island. They do not. They go up to $212,000. That’s not even remotely the same thing. That’s one of the reasons,” she said. 

Peck asked for the list of superintendent salaries from across Rhode Island school districts to be put up on the screen during the meeting. 

“Let’s pull it up,” he said. “Beyond that, individual members cannot subvert a motion. It was very clear what the motion was. It seems to be a breakdown in process.

“There was a motion. 5-0. Something else happened.”

Douglas agreed that the motion was to include the range of $265,000 to $290,000.

She added: “I made it based on poor information.”

Peck responded: “That’s your opinion, that the data was wrong. That’s a separate conversation. 

There was a motion. And there was communication from a member of this Committee to school administration and that motion was changed.”

The “communication” appears to be an email Douglas sent out following the Jan. 4 vote. 

“I sent that information to the chair of the Committee, our attorney, and (district Finance Director) Doug Fiore. And I said ‘I’m bothered by this,’” Douglas said. “And I didn’t hear anything back, except for one notice from the lawyer. I have no idea what happened with that. I appreciate that the lower number was sent out because I think that bothers me. The flip side is that I didn’t have any other interaction with anybody and Patrick was Ccd on the email.”

Barrington School Committee Chairman Patrick McCrann acknowledged the change of the job listing salary range. 

“The superintendent consultants came back to me with the salaries … and I personally said ‘Let’s go with the $265,000,’” McCrann said.

“This is a preliminary announcement so it’s not the official announcement. If the Committee wishes to have that go forward on the official announcement that’s fine.”

Pay range

At the Jan. 4 meeting, members of the School Committee spent time discussing the job listing for the Superintendent’s position.

Peck and McCrann said the consultant hired to help with the superintendent search — Hazard, Young, Attea Associates — recommended a salary range of $265,000 to $290,000 in order to attract candidates from beyond Rhode Island. 

During that meeting, School Committee Attorney Aubrey Lombardo said she had a list of all the superintendents’ salaries for Rhode Island. 

After a short discussion, Douglas made a motion to approve the preliminary job posting for the Superintendent with a salary range of $265,000 to $290,000, with a $15,000 sign-on bonus and a $10,000 relocation bonus. Peck seconded the motion, which passed by a 5-0 vote. 

At the Jan. 18 meeting, Committee member Frazier Bell said it was important to include the higher salary range.

“If we’re the number one school district in Rhode Island, do we want to compare ourselves with districts that rank below us?” Bell asked. “Or do we want to look outside the state and want to strive for that?

“I don’t think it’s necessarily an issue that this number is going to be much higher than the rest of the school districts in the state of Rhode Island.”

The range of $265,000 to $290,000 is well above the current base salaries earned by superintendents across the state. The superintendent for Providence schools earns $212,180, while there are 10 superintendents who earn between $180,000 and $200,000. Another nine superintendents earn between $170,000 and $180,000. 

Douglas said she is not comfortable with the salary range she and other Committee members voted to approve for the preliminary job listing, 

“Should we offer more than what the going rate is in Rhode Island to attract national attention? Absolutely,” she said. “Should we go $65,000 above that? I struggle with that. Because that’s more than a starting teacher. We start getting into choices that we’re making and yes, I one hundred percent agree we need a strong leader, but the flip side is we have a tight budget next year and it’s going to have impacts on the services we provide in the district.”

Peck agreed that $65,000 was a lot of money, but added that it represented just .0001 percent of the annual school budget. 

“And if the candidate we bring in can’t find .0001 percent efficiency, then we would have failed our job bringing in a strong candidate,” he said. “I think it’s a pretty low bar to break even, in terms of finding efficiency. But I do recognize that 65,000 is a lot of money. But it would penny wise and pound foolish to not bring in a strong strategic leader to lead the district.”

McCrann later said the School Committee will have another opportunity to decide on a salary range for the final job listing.