The Ogden City School Board agreed last week to extend Superintendent Brad Smith’s contract for another two years. Under the new contract, Smith, who earns $120,000 per year, is offered an additional $6,000 in potential bonuses, contingent upon his performance over the next year. Jennifer Zundel is Vice President of the Ogden School Board. She says most district superintendents in Utah earn upwards of $200,000 per year.
“We negotiated with him that his base salary was going to be lower and that his opportunity for increasing that would come through evaluations and performance," Zundel says. "I think that’s a great decision in that we’re showing everyone that hey, we’re going to hold the Superintendent to the same standard that we’re going to hold everyone else.”
Zundel says Ogden School District officials will eventually have to hire a new Superintendent, and it would be difficult to do so at Smith’s current pay rate.
She did not disclose the specific criteria for Smith’s potential bonuses, but she did say in the coming weeks he will be expected to improve communication with employees at the school level.
“He will report on his progress when we do his evaluation in a few weeks and be able to tell us exactly what he’s done in that direction and what still needs to be done," Zundel says.
Smith has been criticized for some of his decisions, since taking the job in 2011. In response to a $2.7 million budget deficit, 20 full-time librarians were let go in the spring. Recently some teachers in the district have expressed concerns about large class sizes.
