School board working on Jeff Moss' evaluation

The Beaufort County school board's closed-door meeting to evaluate superintendent Jeff Moss lasted more than four hours Tuesday night.

The meeting was still ongoing at 8:45 p.m. As of press time, it was not clear whether the school board would finish the evaluation Tuesday or schedule another meeting to finish the review, which is already about a month behind schedule because members wanted to create a new evaluation form.

The annual review only covers the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014. But board members have said they would also discuss Tuesday whether to conduct a second review of Moss' conduct in the subsequent months during which he changed the district's nepotism rule and approved his wife's hire to a $90,000 administrative job.

Darlene Moss worked five days before resigning from the position of innovation director -- a job now open for new candidates.

Although school board chairwoman Mary Cordray has said board members already discussed Jeff Moss' actions in executive session on Sept. 21, board member JoAnn Orischak requested they address the issue again in response to apparent frustration at a lack of consequences for the superintendent.

Moss, who earns $220,000 annually, has maintained he acted ethically and professionally in relation to the hiring and apologized to board members Sept. 21 for the publicity surrounding the incident.

But some members of the public have continued to criticize Jeff Moss and the school board, including more than 500 people who signed a petition seeking the superintendent's resignation.

While contributions to Moss' annuity are generally contingent on a positive evaluation, he received about $22,000 -- 10 percent of his salary -- automatically when the board did not complete the evaluation before November.

Following Moss' evaluation last year, which was his first in the district, the board extended his contract to 2020.

Follow reporter Rebecca Lurye on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Rebecca.

Related content:

• Superintendent up for review: Beaufort County school board will evaluate Jeff Moss in coming weeks, October 29, 2015
• Superintendent Jeff Moss' annual review won't cover period of wife's hire, November 8, 2015

This story was originally published November 24, 2015 at 9:18 PM with the headline "School board working on Jeff Moss' evaluation."