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Board approves independent psychologist contract after public objections about candidate's experience
Summary
After two public commenters criticized an independent contractor candidate's youth and affiliations, the board approved a one‑year independent psychologist contract at $90/hour; the administration said the hire is to provide educational testing and has been vetted.
Two members of the public criticized the district's planned independent-contractor school psychologist during public comment and asked the board to reconsider before a vote.
David Horvath said he reviewed the candidate’s website and expressed concern about affiliations and the candidate's youth and experience, saying, “She's only 27 years old. She has no experience in anything,” and asked the board not to hire the person for work in a district of Parkland’s size. Laura Warmcastle raised similar concerns about the candidate's training and whether the district adequately vetted a candidate finishing a PhD program.
The administration responded that the item was already vetted in committee and that the independent contractor role is narrowly scoped to psychological educational testing. A district administrator said the candidate “has been vetted through prior employers, and is very accomplished in the areas that were just, mentioned, specifically in autism,” and described this as a capacity measure to fill testing needs. The board then voted to approve the independent psychological contract (agenda item 8.02): the contract term is one year with automatic one‑year renewals unless otherwise terminated, and the rate is $90 per hour.
The discussion separated the public concern (experience and affiliations) from the administrative description of the contractor’s intended duties (testing and autism supports) and the board took formality-level action by approving the contract.
