BURTON SUPERINTENDENT SEPARATION AGREEMENT RELEASED

  

The terms of the separation agreement for Burton Superintendent Jim Palmer were released to KWHI today.  KWHI filed a public information request for the agreement after the Burton School Board approved it Monday evening.  Although there was no buy out of Palmer’s remaining contract, Palmer will be reimbursed for 2 separate items relating to his pay.

An audit of Palmer’s pay during his 12 years with the district found that due to a bookkeeping error, he did not receive a $150 health insurance credit each month since 2006.  That totaled $15,000 and the reimbursement for it was made part of the separation agreement.

The other item that the school board considered was that Palmer had 120 days of leave accrued.  The District has no written policy to reimburse employees for this time, so most employees take the leave time with pay at the end of their tenure.  If Palmer did this, he could leave now and collect pay through June of 2015.  The board and Palmer agreed that in exchange for 2 months pay ($17,800.) that Palmer would continue at his duties till January 14,  2015 and take only the days between then and January 31st as leave.

Palmer pointed out that the separation agreement allows the school district to retain half of his salary in the budget and does not require the district to use reserve funds.  He felt that the agreement was amicable to both parties and put the District in a good position to begin the search for a new Superintendent.