Former DeKalb County School District Superintendent Steve Green will remain an inactive district employee through the end of the 2019-2020 school year, though he is able to take a new job elsewhere immediately.
Interim Superintendent Ramona Tyson, meanwhile, will receive about $250,000 for salary and expenses through the end of the current school year.
According to the separation agreement between Green and the DeKalb County Board of Education, Green was able to begin employment with another organization on Nov. 12, a day after he and the district parted ways. Green had announced in May he intended to leave the district at the end of the 2019-2020 school year.
He will be paid about $200,000 through the end of the school year, but cannot speak on behalf of the district or the school board and must not disparage either entity, under terms of the agreement. Likewise the board or school district must not disparage Green upon separation.
According to Tyson’s new contract with the school district, she will earn $285,000 in annual wages, prorated for the nearly eight-month term. She also will receive $2,600 monthly for expenses and $500 each month for travel, along with a car. The district will pay up to $5,000 for attorney fees she accrued related to negotiating the new position.
Tyson is a 32-year district veteran who began her career as a business teacher at Lakeside High School and worked her way through the administrative ranks. In 2010, when she was a deputy superintendent, she became the district's interim leader when Superintendent Crawford Lewis went on leave amid an investigation that uncovered a criminal enterprise being run out of the district, leading to several convictions.
The board agreed Tyson would undergo no performance evaluation “due to the short-term nature of this contract and Mrs. Tyson’s prior experience as superintendent.”
Green was not held to board-generated goals for most of his time, and that was an issue for critics of both him and the school board, and a point of contention between several of the board members elected to oversee him.
Tyson also will be allowed to take speaking engagements and short-term assignments as well as spend up to 10 days as a consultant for other agencies. Should she be paid for any, she must use vacation time to avoid double-dipping.
She will remain interim superintendent through June 30, 2020, unless the board chooses to employ a permanent superintendent before that date. If a new superintendent joins the district before June 30, Tyson keeps her salary and subsequently becomes a transition consultant through the remainder of her term.
Tyson has said she intends to retire at the end of the 2019-2020 school year.
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