Social Circle school board approves McGhee contract

SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga. - After two meetings that lasted hours to discuss the contract for Superintendent Todd McGhee, it only took a few minutes to finally vote on the agreement at Thursday’s meeting of the Social Circle Board of Education.

Motioned by Rico Jackson and seconded by Patrick Dally, the board voted unanimously on the new contract, which was adopted primarily to remove legally troubling discrepancies from the written agreement versus the verbal specifications made when the board voted to extend the contract last September.

The new contract is only different in minor ways from previous contacts — McGhee’s compensation remains the same and the new agreement changes no major requirements. Primarily, the new contract changes the expiration date of his tenure from June 30, 2020, to June 30, 2019, and reduces a 12-month severance package to a six-month severance package. An automatic raise clause was removed, as well.

Board Chairman John Callahan spoke to try and dispel rumors around the contract discussions.

“I heard several rumors swirling about this situation,” Callahan said. “Here are some examples: McGhee’s tenure was in jeopardy because we have several new board members. Another one was we had the called board meeting (Feb. 23) to fire Dr. McGhee. These rumors are absolutely and completely false.”

In other board news, the board approved a new teacher and paraprofessional for the pre-kindergarten program to reduce the waiting list for the program. The two hires will cost $45,265 together.

The board also voted to approve a replacement cooling tower at the middle/high school at a cost of $89,000.

Stephen Milligan is the news editor of The Walton Tribune. His email address is stephen.milligan@waltontribune.com.

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