St. Mary Parish School Board President Kenneth Alfred announced Thursday that Superintendent Dr. Teresa Bagwell won't seek an extension of her contract when it expires in June.
The Review/Bill Decker
Superintendent won't seek contract extension
CENTERVILLE — St. Mary Superintendent Dr. Theresa Bagwell told School Board members Thursday that she isn’t seeking an extension of her contract, which expires in June.
School Board President Kenneth Alfred made that announcement at Thursday’s regular meeting.
Bagwell met with School Board members in a closed-door session during the meeting to receive her annual evaluation. With a new evaluation system developed by a committee of board members assembled for that purpose, all 11 members graded
Bagwell on a scale of 1 to 4.
Bagwell received an 11-member average grade of 3.21 — “.21 better than proficient,” Alfred said.
Bagwell, appointed superintendent in 2019, and the school system’s leadership in general have come in for criticism on a variety of issues, including staff turnover and the handling of the COVID pandemic.
Bagwell had received positive evaluations since becoming superintendent with a starting salary of $135,000 per year. Board members had cited the district’s continued standing in the state’s school accountability system.
St. Mary ranks among the top third of Louisiana school systems despite a student body with a large percentage of low-income students.
On Thursday, Parish President David Hanagriff and Morgan City Mayor Lee Dragna attended the meeting and expressed concern beforehand that Thursday’s agenda listed “discussion and/or action concerning the Superintendent’s contract” so far in advance of its expiration.
As a result of this week’s elections, five new members will take office on the 11-member board in January.
But after the closed-door session, Alfred took discussion of Bagwell’s contract and public comments about it off the table after announcing that Bagwell wouldn’t seek to have her contract extended.
After the meeting, Alfred said Bagwell’s evaluation was on the agenda Thursday because her contract entitles her to an evaluation each year. Because the committee needed time to develop the evaluation instrument, the board was running out of time for her evaluation, he said.