Local Radar

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Roberson named "interim superintendent" after snubbing district

web posted July 7, 2007
JOHNSTON – The Edgefield County School District met Friday afternoon and after a near three-hour meeting emerged from Executive Session to announce that the contract negotiations with Dr. Frank Roberson ended after a letter was received on July 3 from Dr. Roberson’s attorney. However, in a stunning vote, the School Board voted 4-2 to hire Dr. Roberson as the interim superintendent while the new search for a superintendent gets underway. Board member Andy Livingston was absent from the meeting.

After returning to regular session Chairwoman Sallie Cooks asked for recommendations from the board on possible choices for the interim superintendent. Board member Brad Covar made a motion to hire “candidate #1” which was seconded by Vice-chairman Scott Chitty which failed on a vote of 2-4.

 A second recommendation was asked for and board member Viola Jackson made the motion for “candidate #2” which drew a quick second by board member James Bibbs, and passed on the 4-2 vote with Sallie Cooks and Mary Alice Jackson voting yes on the motion, members Covar and Chitty voting in the negative.

Candidate #2 was then revealed as Dr. Frank Roberson. School Board attorney Greg Anderson said after the meeting that the other candidate was former superintendent Dr. Sharon Keesley.

The vote to hire Dr. Roberson came as a surprise since he had given a scathing interview about the Edgefield County School Board to the Aiken Standard that was published by the Aiken Standard on Friday. In addition, it was Roberson who changed the proposed contract at the last minute and then refused to negotiate.

In the letter to the School Board ending the negotiations Robert Buchanan, Roberson’s attorney, stated that Dr. Roberson enjoyed serving as “interim superintendent”. Board Attorney Anderson said that Dr. Roberson was not serving the district in any capacity during the negotiations, “We had no contract with Dr. Roberson,” during the period and that Dr. Roberson’s contract expired at midnight on June 30.

Chairwoman Sallie Cooks said after the meeting that a new search would begin immediately and she expected it to take around four months or more to complete. When asked if Dr. Roberson could apply for the position Mrs. Cooks said, “It will be open for anyone.”

The point of contention in the negotiations came just before the school board was to meet with Dr. Roberson to approve the contract that was offered this spring. It was then the board learned that a provision that would allow Dr. Roberson sixty days to get out of the contract was added by Dr. Roberson’s attorney. That was unacceptable to the board Mr. Anderson said. “We offered him (Roberson) basically everything he wanted in the three year contract and we felt that he needed to make a commitment to the education of the school children in Edgefield County. He wouldn’t do that.”

Mr. Anderson said he has drawn up many contracts over the years and has never seen such a provision included. 

The provision, if accepted, would have amounted to a six-month contract that self renewed every sixty days.

Mrs. Cooks said Dr. Roberson would be working “at the pleasure of the school board” during the search for a replacement. He would still be able to leave at any time, thus placing the district back into the same situation at a future date before a replacement can be found.

Mrs. Cooks said that there were other candidates mentioned during the meeting, “we were just throwing out names,” she said but could not reveal them due to privacy issues.

This will be the second search for a superintendent by the district in the last ten months. 

 

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