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Superintendent's contract, vacant seat on school board's agenda

By Steve Welker | The News Herald

Published: June 27, 2009

Morganton - The Burke County Board of Education may take action Tuesday on the school superintendent's contract and a vacant board seat.
Those are only two items on the agenda for what could be a long meeting on an unusual date and at an unusual time. The board usually has its regular meetings on Monday evenings. This week's meeting is the board's annual year-end session, so it will be on Tuesday starting at 11:30 a.m. in the Staff Development Center, 509 W. Concord St.
It's expected to be a long meeting in part because this will be the first time since May when the board hears public comments. The board last week set aside 60 minutes for public comments. Speakers will have up to three minutes. People may sign up in advance by calling Sue Lowdermilk at the Central Office, 439-4311, or by signing up at the Staff Development Center prior to the meeting.
The agenda lists "superintendent's contract" and "vacant board seat" as the third and fourth "action/discussion items" near the end of the open session.
The Burke County school board on April 20, relying on its attorney's legal advice, decided the superintendent's contract should end June 30. A superior court judge in May enjoined the board from taking action on that decision. However, it came out during the hearing that almost all N.C. public schools superintendents have contracts that end on the end of a school year, which is June 30.
Burke County Superintendent David Burleson's current contract ends April 10, 2010.
One of the school board's options is to give Burleson a new contract from July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010, putting him on the same schedule as other superintendents, school district attorney Jon Jones said nearly three months ago.
Burleson's contract also requires the board to give him 180 school days' notice (a full school year) about whether the board intends to renew the contract when it expires. That notification date passed months ago, but the board on Tuesday could give Burleson a new one-year contract and give notice at the same time.
The board on Tuesday also could consider ending its contract with Burleson. The judge said in his temporary injunction that the school board retains its statutory power to fire the superintendent for cause (such as failing to fulfill required duties) or to buy out the superintendent's contract. If a board chooses the latter, it must satisfy statutory requirements about the source of funds; specifically, it cannot use any state funds or local funds appropriated for teachers, textbooks, or classroom materials, supplies and equipment.
Those are only a few possibilities. The board is not required to take any action on its "action/discussion items."
The second item — filling the vacant board seat — came up on June 11 when the board deadlocked 3-3 over its members' choices to replace David Barnard, the Western District board member who resigned May 2. Seven people applied; two later dropped out.
Sam Wilkinson, Buddy Armour and Rob Hairfield favored Nellie Yancey of Morganton, a long-time school bus driver who went to college, earned her teaching certificate and recently retired from Oak Hill Elementary School.
Tracy Norman, Tim Buff and Karen Sain favored John Aulgur of Nebo, a Lake James marina operator, member of the Western Piedmont Community College Board of Trustees and former chairman of the Burke County Republican Party.
The other applicants are the Rev. Flemon McIntosh Jr., David Turbeville and Justin Tate.
Board members could change their votes for any of the five. For that matter, they also could choose someone not on the list. The applicable state statute says the board "shall" (meaning "must") fill a vacant board seat by majority vote, but the law does not say how to do so. Neither does it put a time limit on the process. A stalemate or simple inaction conceivably could last until the November election when filling the vacant seat becomes the voters' responsibility.
Several items on the agenda deal with the school district's annual audit. The board's finance committee met Friday afternoon to receive and review accounting companies' proposals for conducting the 2008-09 audit. Two applied. One is Lowdermilk & Church & Co., the firm that performed audits for several years before the school board hired Smith Miller & Buff CPA to do the 2007-08 audit.
The 2007-08 audit, due last fall, arrived months late, prompting some discussion about whether to change firms. Norman on Tuesday will present a letter from the state treasurer concerning the audit.
The full agenda is on the school district's Web site: www.burke.k12.nc.us.
People with suitable computers, compatible software and Internet connections can watch the meeting streamed in live video. That link is also on the school's Web site.