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Ringgold SD board approves superintendent evaluation and pay adjustment amid Sunshine Act dispute
Summary
The Ringgold School District board voted 5-4 to approve the superintendent's evaluation and an unspecified compensation adjustment after a heated exchange in which a board member said the pay change should have been included in the public agenda.
The Ringgold School District Board of School Directors voted 5-4 to approve the evaluation of Superintendent Randall Sprinterich and to adjust his compensation, directing the board secretary to post information about the evaluation as required by section 10-1073.1 of the school code.
The vote followed public discussion by board members about whether the compensation adjustment should have been listed with a dollar amount in the public agenda. A board member who objected to the procedure said, "The public should probably know when we vote to approve compensation adjustments that we state with specificity what those adjustments are." The objecting member also stated, "Public salaries are never confidential."
Board members asking questions were told by a colleague that the amount was "not specified in the agenda." The motion as presented directed the secretary to post the evaluation information under section 10-1073.1 of the school code; the motion did not include the specific dollar amount of the adjustment. During debate, another board member said they had "no problem with 4.4%" as an adjustment amount, but committee members repeatedly pressed for transparency about why the amount was omitted from the agenda.
After the motion passed 5-4, members who had raised procedural concerns said they would not support future votes that referenced executive-session discussion in lieu of agenda detail. The transcript records repeated objections that keeping an item "as discussed in executive session" on the agenda without specifying amounts risks a Sunshine Act violation.
The action taken was limited to approving the evaluation, directing the posting required by the cited school-code section, and adopting an unspecified compensation adjustment. The transcript does not record the dollar figure of the adjustment or further implementation details.
The board's procedural disagreement centered on public-access rules and the scope of executive-session confidentiality. No follow-up schedule for revealing the compensation amount beyond the posting requirement in section 10-1073.1 was specified on the record.
