The Denver college board voted 4-3 Thursday to instantly elevate the income of Superintendent Alex Marrero to $305,000, a 10% strengthen to his foundation income. The new agreement also features performance pay out of up to 12.5% of his foundation income if he achieves all of aims.
Denver Community Colleges is the major school district in the condition, calculated by enrollment, and Marrero’s salary will now be the highest for a superintendent in Colorado.
Vice President Auon’tai Anderson and board users Scott Esserman and Michelle Quattlebaum voted versus the elevate. Anderson and Quattlebaum stated they disagreed with the process of renegotiating Marrero’s deal, which they criticized as not clear.
“We did not arrive to a authentic consensus on how the negotiations had been likely to take place,” Quattlebaum claimed. “We were being flawed in the approach.”
Tracy Dorland, superintendent of Jeffco Community Educational facilities, the state’s next-greatest district, will make $279,916 this 12 months. Erin Kane, superintendent of the 3rd-premier district in Douglas County, was employed final year at $250,000. Aurora Community Schools, which is the fifth-biggest district, just agreed to spend a new superintendent, Michael Giles, $285,000 starting off in July.
Marrero was employed by the Denver faculty board in July 2021 at a wage of $260,000. That was the same wage earned by past superintendent Susana Cordova. Marrero’s agreement stated his salary would rise each year at the price of the community client cost index.
Prior to Thursday’s vote, Marrero’s salary for this yr was $276,354.
If he earns the optimum general performance fork out feasible below his new deal, his salary would be $343,125, which would be a 24% raise.
In his virtually two yrs as superintendent, Marrero has dealt with various controversial and superior-profile troubles, such as climbing gun violence and a taking pictures inside of the district’s premier higher university, as properly as the determination to near educational institutions due to declining enrollment.
Marrero has only experienced a person overall performance evaluation — and it was considerably controversial. In Oct, the board voted 6-1 to settle for Marrero’s self-evaluation as his formal analysis. Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson was the sole no vote, explaining in a statement that he did not consider the analysis was sturdy sufficient. It should really not be “a rubber-stamp exercising,” he wrote.
Marrero’s evaluation differed markedly from the last time the board evaluated a superintendent. For Cordova’s analysis in 2020, the board employed an exterior organization to acquire feedback from pupils, parents, staff, and group customers in addition to thinking of Cordova’s self-evaluation. The board also gave her a rating: 3 out of 5.
Some speculated that the middling evaluation led Cordova, who grew up in Denver and experienced worked her entire vocation in DPS, to resign a several months later.
“That prior method was far from ideal, and we ought to discover from what did not get the job done very well,” Anderson wrote in his statement about why he voted against Marrero’s self-evaluation. “That explained, I imagine the present Board has about-corrected.”
Board members have constantly supported Marrero publicly, even if they have not often agreed with his recommendations, especially on college closures. In December 2021, right before any analysis took area and just 5 months into his tenure, the school board prolonged Marrero’s contract from two years to four decades with computerized 1-year extension.
That usually means Marrero’s deal has the prospective to go as a result of 2026. In extending his agreement, board users mentioned they required to give him far more time to make a variation in Denver.
Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, masking Denver Public Universities. Get hold of Melanie at [email protected].
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