St. Charles School District 303 approves contract with superintendent with new goals in place

ST. CHARLES – At its Oct. 15 meeting, the St. Charles Community Unit District 303 School Board members unanimously approved a new contract for St. Charles School Superintendent Jason Pearson that outlines a set of expectations for him.

The contract runs from July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2022. As part of the contract, Pearson will see his annual salary increase to $226,000, up from $220,000. In addition, he is eligible to receive an annual raise of no more than 3% beginning in the second year of contract.

As part of the new contract, which is posted on the district's website, the board expects Pearson to meet goals which fall under five categories: Community of Learners, Quality of Staff and Development, Finance/Operations, Community Engagement and District Leadership.

For example, under the category Community of Learners, Pearson is expected to "increase equity for students and staff to innovative instructional programs and resources." Under the category Community Engagement and District Leadership, he is expected to "provide outreach and community engagement opportunities for stakeholders to learn about and better understand our district mission, programs, services and use of resources."

"We felt like these were the best goals at this time for this district and for what this district needs to help our students," School Board President Carolyn Waibel said after the meeting. "This is going to be an ever changing, ever evolving tool. This is the first tool, but it will be ever changing. This is going to be work in progress as we partner with our superintendent for the success of our students."

During the meeting, Michelle Casile, of the group Citizens For D303 Accountability, criticized school board members for the process that was followed during the contract talks.

"The contract goals and indicators should have been presented at a public meeting, then added to the contract and then the whole contract voted on," Casile said, in addressing school board members. "The superintendent contract is the most important document for the board to hold the superintendent accountable and for student performance and academic improvement. It's the commitment the board made to taxpayers and students."

Waibel defended how the four-month long evaluation process of Pearson was conducted. She noted that because it was a personnel matter, his contract had to be discussed in closed session.

She also said the board followed the advice of its education attorney.

"We cannot discuss personnel evaluation in open session," Waibel said. "This contract is very typical for comparable districts in our area. And our goals are actually an extension of what some of our neighboring districts do. We've gone kind of above and beyond what some of our neighboring districts do."

Pearson's contract was set to expire in June 2020.

"The reason why we went retroactive is so we could apply the current goals to this year," Waibel said. "Otherwise, these goals would be connected with the new contract and we would not be able to evaluate him on these goals until after June 2020. And we wanted to work with him on these goals now."

Pearson is in his 10th year of service in the district. He joined the administrative team in 2010 as an assistant superintendent and became deputy superintendent in 2016 before being named superintendent in 2017.