GARDNER, Kan. (AP) — A Gardner school board has approved a $425,000 severance package for the district’s superintendent, who is leaving her post just a day before newly elected conservative board members who campaigned on ousting her take office.
The Gardner Edgerton School District board last month approved the severance package covering the remaining 18 months of Superintendent Pam Stranathan’s contract, according to the Kansas City Star, which obtained the separation agreement through an open records request. The package covers Stranathan’s salary and benefits through June 2023, when her contract was set to expire.
Stranathan’s resignation takes effect Sunday. On Monday, new members take office, giving the board a 4-3 conservative majority.
That conservative majority was elected on its opposition to Stranathan’s policy of remote learning and mask requirements in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Across the country, school board meetings have reflected the deep political divide over masks in schools, COVID-19 vaccines and testing requirements and how racial issues are taught.
School board members in parts of the country have resigned amid the onslaught of shouting matches, threats and vitriol, and the Gardner Edgerton district was no exception. During a heated school board meeting last year, two Gardner Edgerton board members walked out and resigned.
The incoming conservative members have been critical of Stranathan’s severance package, calling it a “golden parachute,” and insisting that their opposition to Stranathan encompasses more than mask and remote learning measures. Conservative members also pointed to declining test scores and a general dislike of Stranathan’s leadership style.
Newly elected board member Greg Chapman insisted he would not have pushed to immediately fire Stranathan and accused the current board of using newly elected members “as their excuse for taking almost $500,000 from our citizens, from our students and staff.”
“We would never do anything to purposefully injure the district or anything like that,” Chapman said. “I wasn’t going to terminate. I was going to find other ways to fix the leadership.”
But current board leadership say the severance package was necessary to avoid a potential wrongful termination lawsuit if the new board fired Stranathan — especially given that one conservative member, Lana Sutton, took it upon herself in November to conduct a search for an interim superintendent before there was any discussion of Stranathan leaving her post.
Current board members note that the district has been stung by such lawsuits before. It paid out $1.8 million to settle a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by three administrators after they were fired in 2014.
