The White County School Board approved a new four-year contract for Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger Thursday, extending his leadership through June, 2030.
Board Chairman Bob Young said the decision serves as a gesture of goodwill to recognize the district’s high performance on state testing over the past several years. Young said the school system was one of only 22 districts in the state to receive a million-dollar high-performance bonus from the state.
“To me, I think that’s worthy of some type of acknowledgment and if it’s not financial compensation, contract extension in my opinion would be in order,” Young said. “It’s called rewarding results.”
The new agreement includes two specific language modifications from the previous contract, including the removal of a clause that automatically added one year to the term following a satisfactory evaluation.The board also modified the compensation clause to define “meeting expectations” as achieving a composite score of 3.0 or higher on the director’s annual evaluation.
“I think it’s a good idea because this board has worked with him in this four-year term that he’s in now and been very involved with his contract and with his evaluation,” School Board Member Jayson McDonald said. “I appreciate your leadership over the last nine years that I’ve got to work with you.”
Young said the board recently learned through consultation with its attorney that the school system does not technically issue contract extensions, but instead establishes entirely new contracts to replace existing ones. Young said the board chose to address the matter now because the current board has worked closely with Droneberger during his current four-year term and has been deeply involved in his evaluations.
“Well, nobody likes working year to year and so I’m I’m about halfway through this contract so I mean I’m quite happy where I am right now and happy with the direction the district is going,” Dronebarger said. “I certainly don’t take credit for all the success we’ve had, but I’m certainly proud of the accomplishments we’ve had in our school district and be glad to lead our district moving forward.”
Dronebarger said the June 30 end date is more advantageous for the district than the previous December 31 expiration because it aligns with the standard school year cycle. Dronebarger said he did not request additional financial compensation or changes to his vacation benefits during the negotiation process.
“I’m not really asking for more any more compensation, I’m certainly not asking for any financial compensation but and I think I get adequate vacation days,” Dronebarger said. “I don’t use all of them that I have now anyway.”
The board also held its annual election of officers during the meeting, re-electing Young as chairman by acclamation.