Here’s what you might see in Beaufort Co. school board’s contract with new superintendent

The Beaufort County Board of Education voted Friday to hire White & Story, a Columbia-based law firm, to represent its interests in contract negotiations with Frank Rodriguez, whom the board chose on April 16 as new superintendent of the school district.

While it’s not yet known what, if any, sticking points might pop up during these negotiations, here are a few things we might expect to see:

It might take a little while.

The negotiations with Rodriguez, who is currently regional superintendent of the School District of Palm Beach County in Florida, are expected to take a few weeks at least, according to district spokesperson Jim Foster.

Depending on how talks go and barring any special-called meetings, Rodriguez’s contract could be approved as early as the next board meeting on May 7, but it’s hard to predict whether that will be the case.

In 2013, it took almost three weeks to announce the terms of the board’s contract with former superintendent Jeff Moss, who resigned last May.

The salary could be high.

When Moss was hired in 2013, the board approved an annual base salary of $220,000, which was $5,000 more than advertised, making him the sixth-highest paid superintendent in the state at that time, behind districts larger than Beaufort County, including Greenville, Richland, Horry and Charleston counties.

The salary the board agrees to give Rodriguez will also likely be one of the highest in the state given that the range listed in advertising for the position was around $225,000.

In a 2017 database of “Professional Certified Staff” salaries prepared by the South Carolina Department of Education’s Office of Research and Analysis, Greenville County superintendent William Royster was listed as having the highest base salary in the the state at $225,000.

At the time he was hired by Beaufort County, Moss was superintendent of a school district in North Carolina with 9,850 students and where he received a base salary of $196,000 a year.

Rodriguez currently leads a much larger school district than Beaufort County’s 22,000 students — his region in Palm Beach County has nearly 58,000 students alone — and, according to a Forbes database of highly paid public employees in Florida, in 2017 he was paid around $152,000.

The contract could be for five years.

The school board signed a five-year contract with Moss in 2013 and then extended his contract by two years in 2014 after his first performance evaluation.

The board was widely criticized for the length of Moss’ contract after it came to light in 2015 that Moss had approved the hiring of his wife for a highly paid district position.

That criticism grew over the next few years as Moss pleaded guilty to two state ethics violations and failed to get two bond referendums to pass — and as the school district received four subpoenas in 2018 for documents related to an ongoing FBI investigation into the construction of two Bluffton schools built during Moss’ tenure as well as into Moss’ association with an educational research institute.

When Moss resigned in May 2018, the board agreed to pay him a full year’s salary to buy him out of the last two years of his contract.

This history could be fresh on the minds of the board when they decide on the length of Rodriguez’s contract, however, because the board’s vote to hire him was split 6-5, Rodriguez might look for a contract that offers him some longevity and security.

There will be perks.

Rodriguez’s contract will likely include a list of additional benefits beyond his base salary.

In 2013, Moss’ contract included:

• moving expenses

• a temporary housing allowance

• $850 a month gas allowance

• 20 days vacation

• a personal “data assistant,” laptop and/or an iPad

• $1,250 for term life insurance

• membership dues in state and national education associations and professional groups

• a yearly annuity in lieu of health insurance that would start at 5 percent of his annual salary and increase to 20 percent by 2017-18.

Moss’ contract also required him to find a permanent residence in Beaufort County and move his family here by January 2014 and to pay back all moving expenses should he break his contract before 2016.