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Schools

Superintendent Pritz's Residency Contract Stipulation Pushed to 2013

The Douglas County School Board unanimously approves adjusting the residency requirement for Superintendent Gordon Pritz.

With less than two weeks to fulfill a contract obligation, Superintendent Gordon Pritz will now have until the end of his contract, April 30, 2013, to live in the county he serves.

The Douglas County Board of Education voted 5-0 to delay the residency requirement nearly two more years for Pritz at Monday night’s meeting, which lasted two hours and 10 minutes.

The unanimous decision followed a lively discussion by the board and three community members speaking about the issue during the public comment period, which was moved from the end of the agenda to early in the meeting. D.T. Jackson of District 2 suggested moving the public comment portion of the meeting and the move was later supported through a 5-0 board vote.

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Community members Tracy Benedict and Kerry Rigdon told the board they wanted it to keep its superintendent contract requirement for Pritz to live in Douglas County by July 31, 2011.

Benedict said she thought it was “really important” that the superintendent lived in county he worked in “so you can see beyond the school system.” She also asked Pritz directly if he received an incentive to move to Douglas. Despite being told by Board Chair Jeff Morris of District 5 he didn’t have answer her question because it was against the public comment policy, Pritz said the allegation was “not true.”

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Although Rigdon told Patch that she didn’t have a problem with Pritz or his performance, she used her allotted three minutes to question Pritz’s intentions. She challenged the board to ask Pritz specific questions regarding how hard he had tried to sell his family’s Powder Springs home in the last 15 months or how many house hunting trips his family took.

“My concerns were what I thought the community wanted–a superintendent to live here,” she stated in an email after the meeting. “One year ago the BOE decided it was important enough to include a relocation requirement in his employment contract, which he agreed to. I thought it was important enough to address, and not just waive.”

Jimmy Bartlett concluded the public speaking portion when he spoke about weakening the need for the residency requirement. He reminded the board that the superintendent brochure mentioned only that the next superintendent “should be from Georgia.”

Bartlett later said the whole controversy was spurred solely by the “rogue behavior” of an unnamed board member who he previously described in an analogy as a cry baby trying to “hold the entire household hostage to his tantrums or bad behavior.”

“Tonight, as you consider your vote on the superintendent’s contract,” Bartlett said in closing, “I would ask you to simply do this: Compare the reputation, the job performance and the integrity of our superintendent with the reputation, the job performance and the integrity of any board member who would deliberately seek to undermine him. Folks, it is not even close.”

Morris began the discussion on the superintendent’s contract by making a motion to extend the residency requirement to April 30, 2013.

After stating that he had changed his opinion on the issue, board member Michael Miller of District 1 questioned the logic in moving the residency requirement to the end of Pritz’s contract. He then made a motion to extend the contract’s residency stipulation a year to July 31, 2012, but the motion died after no other board member would second it.

Janet Kelly of District 3 then detailed her reasons against the residency requirement. Although some community members had spoken to her about their concerns regarding Pritz not living in Douglas County, she said others recently had believed the issue was “not a big deal” after learning Pritz resided in nearby Powder Springs.

Kelley later said she requested the community survey the Georgia School Boards Association compiled from public input on what qualities Douglas County residents would want in their next superintendent. Of the 813 comments, Kelley said only 18 respondents specifically wanted a superintendent to reside in Douglas County, 20 wanted the superintendent to have DCSS experience and 58 stated they strongly wanted someone from outside of the county.

“Eighty to 90 percent didn’t bring up residency,” Kelley said. “… I’m in favor of waiving that portion of the contract period because I don’t think that part is what we’re evaluating. It’d be my preference we waive that portion entirely.”

Morris followed Kelley and praised Pritz’s quick loyalty to the Douglas County School System.

“We’re lucky to have Dr. Pritz,” he said. “I can’t go to a function without seeing him.”

After the board’s unanimous vote, Pritz thanked the board for its decision on the “behalf of my family.”

The long night began for Pritz with an about 70-minute evaluation review of his first year at the helm with the board held in executive session and conducted by GSBA consultant Tony Arasi. The board then went back into executive session to discuss personnel, legal and land issues, but it was anticipated that the bulk of that hour meeting revolved around Pritz’s residency requirement.

As a result of the two lengthy executive sessions, Monday’s meeting started 18 minutes late for the crowd of about 30-40 spectators.

Pritz appeared more relaxed as he talked to community members and Patch after the meeting.

“(The contract’s residency requirement has) been weighing on me about the last year,” said Pritz, who has lived in his Powder Springs’ home for 16 years. “I’m very relieved that now I can focus on what’s important.”

Miller said the residency requirement became a “moot point.”

“I was against a change in the contract,” Miller said. “(The previous board’s) expectation was for the superintendent to live in the county. It’s a moot point because looking at the entirety of the contract the majority of the board could change the provisions of the contract upon agreement with the superintendent. I believe it’s more important for the board, as a whole, to support the super (and) the manner in which we made the change (was) transparent.”

Kelley agreed with Pritz and said the board’s decision would allow Pritz to focus on more significant issues.

“It’s not a non-issue,” Kelley said of Pritz’s residency. “It’s just a lower priority issue and I’d like to stay more focused on the mission of our school district, which is to provide students a quality education in a safe, supportive environment. I’d be different if he lived in Macon, but we’re talking Powder Springs.”

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