The board of directors of Regional School Unit 40 extended Supt. Susan Pratt’s contract and give her a 2.5 percent raise Dec. 20, when they came out of a lengthy executive session at the end of a three-and-a-quarter hour meeting.
The board entered executive session at 8:54 p.m. and returned to public session at 10:07 p.m. At that time Waldoboro representative Lynda Letteney made a motion to extend Pratt’s contract. The motion was unanimously approved by the board.
When she began working for the district that comprises Waldoboro, Friendship, Union Warren and Washington in August 2011, Pratt’s contract called for her salary to be $95,000 for the remainder of her first year, according to a story in the Sun-Journal newspaper at that time.
Pratt’s contract called for her to receive $99,500 for the first full year of her term which will end June 30, 2013. Her salary under new contract will be $101,988 per year. The new contract year will start July 1, 2013.
The decision extends Pratt’s contract one year, to June 30, 2015 from a previous expiration of June 30, 2014.
The decision calls for a 2.5 percent raise in Pratt’s salary plus an increase in her travel stipend to $4500, up from $3000 in the current year of the contract.
Pratt came under fire earlier this year after Warren resident Hugh Magbie called the board’s attention to the apparent similarities between a draft strategic plan she posted on the district’s website and RSU 21’s plan, finalized in 2012.
After an executive session at the end of its Sept. 27 meeting, the RSU 40 board approved a motion to make a statement in support of the superintendent, saying they were “convinced that the superintendent never intended to misrepresent the plan as her own work. We are pleased with the direction the superintendent is taking the district in and want to continue the good work on our plan,” the statement said.
