Contract negotiations for Iowa City schools superintendent again behind schedule

The Iowa City school board's decision to delay acting on the full 10-year facilities plan this week likely also postponed a contract settlement with Superintendent Stephen Murley.

It's the second year in a row contract negotiations have stretched months beyond the normal timeline. This time, though, Murley and board leaders say the decision stems from a desire to get the facilities plan finished first.

“My whole goal and my whole focus right now is getting the facilities master plan done and passed,” Murley said. “My contract runs through 2015, so I'm not incredibly anxious about where we're at right now.”

The contract is effective July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2015, with salary and benefits to be renegotiated annually. It was approved by the school board last December, several months later than normal for reasons never explained.

The new contract set a May 1 deadline for Murley's evaluation and June 1 for the salary to be set.

This past September, Murley and then-school board President Marla Swesey said they had agreed on a delay because of a busy board schedule that included hammering out the $258 million facilities plan adopted this summer.

Swesey said she hoped to act on Murley's contract before there was turnover on the school board following the Sept. 10 election, but that did not happen.

Now, the board and administrators are developing a timeline for implementing the facilities plan. The board could have voted on the timeline Nov. 12 but instead chose to approve the first year and set a Dec. 10 deadline to vote on the rest.

That's not to say there's been no action on Murley's contract. The board has met in closed session four times the past three months to discuss the contract, the most recent on Nov. 4.

Offers and counteroffers have been exchanged, according to copies of emails from Murley and board members obtained by the Gazette under Iowa's open records law.

In a Sept. 12 email, Swesey told other board members the board's attorney, Joe Holland, was reviewing a contract. The board met in closed session Sept. 17 to discuss Murley's contract.

In an Oct. 24 email to other school board members, new board President Sally Hoelscher said Murley had given her a revised contract Oct. 3. She also said Murley would rather the facilities plan took priority.

Board member Tuyet Dorau, who earlier had requested on update on Murley's contract, asked Hoelscher why she had “withheld this information from us.”

Hoelscher offered a two-word reply, “Completely unintentional.” In an interview Friday, she said traditionally contracts have not been forwarded by email for confidentiality reasons and she was waiting for a board meeting to share it.

She also said the board added two new members in mid-September and she became president. “Honestly,” she said, “it took me a while to figure everything out.”

Dorau wasn't buying that explanation.

“To forget to inform your fellow board members of the status of contract negotiations with your only employee is a gross oversight,” she told The Gazette.

Hoelscher, Swesey and Murley said they were not worried that the public may view the length of the negotiations as a sign of dissatisfaction on the part of the board or Murley.

“I haven't had emails or anything like that about being concerned about it,” Swesey said.

All agreed it would be better to speed up the process next year, though.

Hoelscher in that same Oct. 24 email said “we need to address this issue soon or decide not to address it this year.” On Friday she said she still hoped to reach an agreement by the end of December.

She said she could not go into detail about what specifically is being negotiated except that it is salary and benefits that are to be revisited each year.

Murley's current salary is $192,000, plus benefits that include $25,000 toward a supplemental retirement plan in the first year, a $7,150 vehicle allowance annually, and vacation, sick, holiday and discretionary leave.

In the past, some board members have questioned Murley's accounting of days off. He said this week he didn't think that was a significant issue anymore.

Murley, who was a finalist for the Omaha, Neb., school superintendent job a year ago, said he is happy here and is not worried about his job security.