Decatur, GA — The City Schools of Decatur School Board will meet on Tuesday, Feb. 8, at 6:30 p.m. for a regular meeting. The meeting will be held in person at the Wilson School Support Center, 125 Electric Ave. in Decatur.

The meeting will also be available virtually through Zoom. To attend the meeting via Zoom, click here.

To view the meeting agenda, click here.

The School Board will vote on Superintendent Maggie Fehrman’s contract and consider extending it for one year effective July 1.

Fehrman took over for Dude in April 2021 after he left the district following months of investigative stories by Decaturish.com that examined allegations raised by the school district’s former human resources director. The School Board gave Fehrman a one-year contract in May 2021. The school board has publicly encouraged Fehrman to apply for the full-time job.

Fehrman’s new contract, which will begin on July 1, gives her a $10,000 raise, from $190,000 to $200,000. She’s also eligible for a retention bonus of $25,000 if she completes the full term of her contract. She can also get a payment of up to $13,333 if she does not use all 15 of her personal leave days.

At the board’s work session on Jan. 25 discussed their superintendent search with the Georgia School Boards Association and learned about GSBA’s process for conducting such a search. The School Board has not decided whether it will partner with GSBA. They are planning to seek out other consultants to see how they would conduct the search before making a final decision.

The School Board was set to begin the search before the end of the school year, but the board announced on Jan. 19 that it needs more time to hire a permanent replacement for former superintendent David Dude. They agreed to offer Superintendent Maggie Fehrman a one-year contract extension.

“We wanted to take our time and wait for the GSBA presentation to hear their timeline,” School Board Chair Jana Johnson-Davis said. “We didn’t feel confident we had enough time to have someone in place by the beginning of next school year.”

The Board will also discuss the preliminary fiscal year 2023 budget draft, which reflects the governor’s proposed fiscal year 2022 amended budget and the fiscal year 2023 budget for the state.

Gov. Brian Kemp released his proposed $30.2 billion budget for 2023 on Jan. 13 after a speech where he shared his spending wish list and announced his support for base-pleasing proposals, according to the Georgia Recorder.

Between the amended 2022 budget and next year’s budget, the governor is suggesting about $650 million to reverse cuts made to public education and pay for a one-time $2,000 raise for full-time school employees and a $1,000 raise for part-time employees.

Editor Dan Whisenhunt contributed to this article.

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