Split board renews superintendent contract

by Melissa Martin

The Brecksville-Broadview Heights school board voted 3-2 in favor of renewing Superintendent Joelle Magyar’s contract through 2025.

According to the terms of the new agreement, Magyar will receive a 2% pay raise every year starting in 2022 for the next four years. She currently earns a salary of $168,547. By the end of her contract in July 2025, her salary will be just over $182,000.

Because the board also approved an addendum to Magyar’s existing contract, she will also receive a 2% raise in 2021, instead of the 1.75% raise she had been scheduled to receive.

School board members Mark Dosen and Kathleen Mack voted against both the new contract and the addendum.

“I’ve had the opportunity to work with three superintendents over my nine-plus years (on the school board), providing my basis for comparison,” Dosen said during a special board meeting April 6. “It’s my view that the district would benefit from a change in leadership.”

Ellen Kramer, school board vice president, said she believes having consistent leadership is key as the district finishes construction of the new elementary school and continues to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We will be dealing with the effects of that for months, if not years,” she said.

Kramer added that she believes conducting a search for a new superintendent at this time would be detrimental to the district.

 “Mrs. Magyar is very enthusiastic about her district and has our students’ best interests in mind always,” she said, noting the district passed both a levy and a bond issue under Magyar’s leadership. “I think her performance has been very, very good during her tenure here.”

Under the terms of the new contract, the district will continue to pay for Magyar’s share of her Medicare payroll tax as it has under her initial contract. That amount is equal to 1.45% of her salary. Under her current salary, that supplement amounts to $2,444 a year.

Magyar, who was hired by the district in 2016, will also be compensated $50 a month for using her cell phone to handle district-related matters.

The board has agreed to an amount equal to 8% of Magyar’s salary – roughly $14,000 – into an annuity for her. The amount of that annuity will increase by 0.75 percent each contract year. Magyar can choose to receive cash payments in lieu of the district’s annuity contributions, either in two equal payments each contract year or biweekly in her paycheck.

Magyar will continue to receive 25 vacation days a year. Five of those days can be rolled over to the next year or she can elect to receive a cash payment for those days. She can also continue to accrue up to five comp days a year for hours worked beyond the regular workday. ∞