Denver Public Schools superintendent Tom Boasberg will receive at least $17,500 in performance-based bonuses this year after a unanimous vote on Thursday to approve a mostly positive annual evaluation.
The board postponed a discussion to allow Boasberg’s contract to extend for a year, through 2015, saying they just needed more time to understand and discuss the clause in the contract allowing him to do so.
They will meet again for that discussion in October.
The vote came after a third discussion behind closed doors, which ran more than an hour longer than expected.
Board members said the discussions were not contentious but centered on being thorough.
“We were all committed to do a much more thorough evaluation than in years past,” said board member Andrea Merida.
Board member Mary Seawell agreed.
“There was no specific area that did end up being contentious, we really are just trying hard,” she said.
In the evaluation, Boasberg is applauded for minimizing budget cuts in classrooms during “fiscally challenging times,” for increasing enrollment, graduation rates, and for keeping DPS academic growth among the strongest in the state.
In addition to the $17,500 bonus, Boasberg will receive $1,562.50 for each of the district’s 16 goals he meets. The board has not determined how many were met, because the final data is not complete.
Last year, his evaluation showed he met 10 of the 16 goals.
Boasberg has agreed, as he did last year, to donate his bonus and any other incentive pay for meeting district goals, to the Denver Public Schools Foundation, which provides scholarships.
The evaluation makes five requests from Boasberg for areas of improvement including presenting better data to the board and to the public, and asks him to “continue his efforts to work collaboratively with all board members.”
The document also states that there was a lack of movement in closing the achievement gap — a point for improvement in last year’s evaluation as well.
A survey conducted by Friends of Education — a 527 political group who has been unclear about what educational politics they want to take part in — conducted surveys in September aimed to influence the discussions about Boasberg’s evaluations.
The survey results were emailed to the board last week.
According to the organization, of the 1,228 surveys collected, the average Denver resident rated Boasberg’s performance just below three on a scale of one to five, with five being the highest score.
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372 or yrobles@denverpost.com
