Edina board unanimously approves three-year contract for Dr. Daniel Bittman at $364,000 base salary
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Summary
The Edina Public Schools board approved a three-year employment agreement for Dr. Daniel Bittman on a 7–0 vote, setting a $364,000 annual base salary and a roughly 40% increase in total compensation compared with the district's prior superintendent package.
The Edina Public Schools Board of Directors voted 7–0 to approve a three-year employment agreement for Dr. Daniel Bittman, setting his base salary at $364,000 and adopting a compensation package the governance committee characterized as a roughly 40% increase in total pay compared with the district's prior superintendent contract.
Board Chair (recorded in the transcript as 'Chair Gabler') presented the governance committee's recommendation and told the board the contract was the result of six weeks of negotiations, review by district legal counsel, and benchmarking against comparable districts. "Dr. Bittman's new base salary for all 3 years will be $364,000," the chair said during the presentation.
The governance committee framed the proposal as a market correction: its benchmarking showed the district's prior base pay and total compensation were meaningfully below comparable districts. The chair said the committee elected to incorporate the increase into base salary rather than supplemental pay to make total compensation more transparent and to avoid precedent-setting supplemental categories.
Directors who spoke on the item praised the committee's work and the candidate's experience. Director Mann said she was pleased with Dr. Bittman's performance to date and thanked the governance committee for prioritizing transparency rather than relying on supplemental bonuses to inflate apparent pay.
One board member asked the board to set clearer expectations about whether the superintendent may engage in outside contracting or executive-search consulting, and suggested the board consider defining permissible outside activities in future discussions.
The assistant clerk conducted a roll-call vote after a motion and second to approve the agreement. Chair Gabler announced, "The employment agreement for superintendent Dr. Daniel Bittman has passed 7 to 0." The board then moved to adjourn the special session.
The approved contract was described in the board packet as a three-year agreement, with the governance committee estimating the total-package increase at about 40% and stating the finance director had confirmed the contract fit current long-term budget projections. The chair also said the fiscal impact equated to "point 06%" to the district's budget for the following year; that figure was noted in the packet but characterized in this article as an approximate budget impact because the transcript wording was ambiguous.
