Rockwood School District Board of Education directors voted on Sunday to extend the district's Superintendent Bruce Borchers’ contract through June 30, 2016. The vote was 4-3 for the contract extension, according to a district news release made available Monday afternoon.
This board meeting originally would have been held Thursday, but was rescheduled to Sunday, based on inclement weather.
Borchers' contract extension comes just days before district residents will learn the discoveries of a Missouri auditoring team, who just finished an audit of the district: Rockwood State Audit Results to be Revealed Wednesday
The district's last state audit was conducted in 1994.
Board members voting to extend Borchers’ contract, according to the release, were: Janet Strate, Matt Doell, Steve Banton and Keith Kinder. Bill Brown, Sherri Rogers and Steve Smith voted against the extension.
Borchers became Rockwood’s superintendent July 1, 2010.
Board president Janet Strate stated in the release: “Dr. Borchers has had a student achievement focus demonstrated by the implementation of the vision scorecards. We believe that student success should be at the forefront of our decisions.”
Strate said Borchers approached the board of directors earlier in the year about not accepting a salary increase if given a contract extension. Borchers’ current salary is $234,600. Last February, board directors gave him a 2 percent salary increase.
Bill Brown stated in the release: “I don’t believe we can ignore the information and feedback we have received from our some of our staff and community members. They have made it clear it’s time for a fresh start and a change in direction.”
School boards review superintendent performance each year. When board members support the superintendent, they extend the contract by a year to keep it at three years.
Read related, previous articles:
Contract of Rockwood Superintendent Extended
Rockwood's Top Administrators Earn Less Than Parkway's Leaders
In St. Louis County, school superintendents generally hold three-year contracts.
So, did Borchers give up the raise the board gave him now that he got his contract extension? The article says that he would. What I want to know is how will the sequester next month impact RSD.
The raise mentioned was in 2012 (a year ago) and he was willing to forgo any raise this year with an extension. I believe his contract has a yearly raise built into it that would have gone into effect next month with out this board action.
- By continuing to support Dr. Borchers, the Board is also losing the community’s trust.