St. Louis School Superintendent Kelvin Adams has signed a contract to stay on the job for another three years.
The new contract calls for his base salary to remain at $225,000 a year – the same salary he has had since he became head of the school district in 2008. But his automobile allowance rises to $800 a month from the $300 a month payment included in the old contract that expired last week. The $800 figure had been part of earlier contracts that Adams signed with the district.
Since Adams became superintendent, the city schools’ performance has improved steadily.
At one point, the school system was unaccredited, but it regained provisional accreditation before the point where students could have transferred to nearby accredited districts under the state law that was upheld by the Missouri Supreme Court in 2013.
It has been pushing for full accreditation based on its most recent state evaluation, which showed that many schools in the system already have enough points for that distinction.
Earlier this year, he was mentioned as a top candidate for the superintendent’s job in Los Angeles. But he told St. Louis on the Air in March that he never intended to move to LA. The superintendent's post there was filled by a deputy superintendent, Michelle King.
The hiring of Adams was one of the first actions taken by the Special Administration Board that was appointed to run the city schools in 2007. Since that time, the system has improved in the three areas cited when the appointed board was put in place -- student achievement, finance and governance.
Talks for a possible transition that would put an elected board back into power were set to begin Tuesday evening, with representatives from the state school board, the elected board and the SAB in attendance.
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