The Fulton County superintendent hired two years ago has received his second contract extension, which should keep him in the job for three more years.
Robert Avossa can stay on until May 31, 2016 under a new contract extension approved last week.
The school board, with one member absent, unanimously approved the new contract, agreeing to give him a 16 percent pay raise and a larger retirement supplement.
Avossa was hired with a three-year contract, the maximum allowed in Georgia. Pleased with his performance, the school board last year tacked on another year. Now, with two years remaining, the board has again added a third year.
“We are thrilled with the work Dr. Avossa is doing for this district,” said school board president Linda Schultz.
Avossa took office in June 2011 and has shepherded the district and its roughly 90,000 students through an innovative restructuring. It’s the largest school district in Georgia to become a “charter” district. The designation gives the state’s fourth largest school district freedom from many education mandates in exchange for meeting specified education goals.
Fulton is sending some management decisions down to schools and their school councils. Avossa has reorganized the district administration into “learning communities” that puts experts in various academic disciplines closer to schools, Schultz said. He’s assembled a strong management team and communicates well with the board, she said.
Avossa will be paid $275,000 a year, up from $238,000, said board attorney Glenn Brock. The board also increased the contribution into his annuity for retirement from 4.5 percent to 10 percent of his salary annually. Avossa will still have the same $1,000 a month car allowance, Brock said.
In exchange for the pay increase, Avossa agreed to a disincentive for quitting his job early. Should he try to leave before his contract expires, he’ll have to pay $100,000.
Avossa’s pay for running the Georgia’s fourth largest school district is now near the high end for metro Atlanta, but not at the top. That distinction goes to Alvin Wilbanks in Gwinnett County, who is paid $414,000 to run Georgia’s largest district. Interim DeKalb Superintendent Michael Thurmond gets $275,000 in the state’s third largest district while Michael Hinojosa in Cobb, the second largest, is paid around $232,000, which is down abourt $5,000 because of furlough days.
Parents such as Joseph Rodriguez are happy with Avossa’s performance. The vice president of the South Fulton Council PTA said some parents have complained that Avossa changed their school principal, but Rodriguez, whose daughter attends a charter school, said the district is heading in the right direction.
“I’ve been happy with him because he seems to be a no-nonsense superintendent,” Rodriguez said.
Jen Hancock, the PTA co-president at Barnwell Elementary in Johns Creek, said things are running so smoothly that Avossa’s name never comes up: “No one’s unhappy — not that I’ve heard. It’s all positive.”
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