Phenix City Board of Education gives superintendent raise, hires 2 principals

The Phenix City Board of Education unanimously voted Friday to raise the superintendent’s salary by 9 percent and pay him a bonus if he completes the renewed contract’s five-year term and if the school system still has at least one month’s worth of operating reserve by then.

The board hasn’t complied with the Ledger-Enquirer’s request for a copy of the contract, but board president Brad Baker said after the meeting that the new deal raises Superintendent Randy Wilkes’ salary to $165,000 from $147,664. That means he will be tied for 17^th among the highest-paid superintendents in Alabama. Wilkes has been the 28^th-highest paid superintendent in the state’s 32^nd-largest school district since he was hired from Crenshaw County two years ago.

Baker has said it is more appropriate to compare Wilkes’ salary among superintendents of only city school systems, where Phenix City ranks ninth in enrollment but the superintendent’s salary was 21st. Now, his salary will be ranked 14^th among the state’s city school systems.

Baker also said after Friday’s meeting that the proposed longevity bonus, mentioned as $50,000 during Tuesday’s work session, was reduced to $30,000 because the one city system he found that has such a bonus in its superintendent’s contract, Alabaster, has a larger tax base than Phenix City.

Noting the 7-0 vote, Baker said, “It just shows that we’re headed in the right direction. We’ve got a great leader.”

Wilkes told the Ledger-Enquirer after the meeting, “It’s an exciting time to be in Phenix City Schools. I’m very blessed to be part of it. It’s a great community. There are a lot of intelligent, talented people, and there’s been an outpouring of community support for our schools, so we just look forward to continuing. … It’s a privilege and an honor to serve the people here in Phenix City.”

Wilkes emphasized the positive momentum his administration has created “is a group effort. We came in Day One and talked about all of us pulling together. Yes, there’s a final decision to be made at the end of the day, but we have gifted people throughout.”

Before he retired last month, Alabama State Superintendent Tommy Bice lauded Wilkes and his administration for their leadership during a visit to Phenix City in December. He said he hasn’t seen any school system in Alabama that invests in its people like Phenix City for the professional development to utilize excellent facilities and equipment in excellent ways, changing the old model of teachers lecturing to the new model of teachers facilitating the students’ learning.

“Based on what I’ve seen today, you’ve not only made the shift, you’ve implemented it,” Bice said then. “Every child could tell me why they were doing what they were doing, which is the true measure of a school meeting the needs of their students.”

The accomplishments for Wilkes’ administration include:

▪  Increased graduation rate from 63 percent in 2012-13 to 86 percent in 2014-15.

▪  Approved plans to expand the high school with a $3,296,335 project.

▪  Constructing the $2.1 million Dyer Family STEM Center at Phenix City Intermediate School. Bice said during his December visit that the facility will be “unmatched” and that if educators want to see what innovative instruction “looks like in reality, you come to Phenix City.”

▪  Planning a STEMposium expected to host more than 300 participants from around the world June 26-28, 2017. “I’ve never seen anything like what Phenix City is trying to do, in total, anywhere else in the world,” Amy Knower said in March about the school system embracing STEM education in a dynamic way better than the hundreds of communities she has visited as partnerships director for Discovery Education.

▪  Installing an estimated $1.75 million worth of SmartLabs in the seven elementary schools by next school year.

▪  Spending $750,000 over three years to equip students and teachers in grades 6-8 with iPad Airs and $534,000 over three years to equip students and teachers in grades 9-12 with Google Chromebooks.

▪  Despite all that spending, the board has increased the reserve fund from less than one month’s worth of operations in 2013 to more than two months now. The school system has a little more than $10 million in reserve, which equals about 2.2 months worth of operating expenses, said chief financial officer Cheryl Burns. The system’s budget this fiscal year is $76.2 million.

▪  The Friends of Phenix City Schools has raised $805,000 in 10 months, part of a $1.1 million campaign to help pay for those projects.

Principals hired

The board also unanimously approved Wilkes’ recommendation to hire two new principals for next school year:

▪  Sylvia Allen-Averett will be the principal of Phenix City Elementary School, replacing Shuvon Ray, who will resign because her husband’s job is being transferred out of state.

▪  Lanette Holmes will be the principal of Lakewood Elementary School, replacing Sharon Elder, who will retire.

Allen-Averett and Holmes work in Lee County’s system after extensive experience in Phenix City.

Allen-Averett has been assistant principal at Smiths Station High School the past two years, a K-12 instructional coach in Phenix City (2012-14), a reading coach and a second-grade teacher at Meadowlane Elementary School (2009-12) and a teacher in grades 5-6 at Phenix City Intermediate School (2002-09). She earned a master’s degrees in instructional leadership (2014) and elementary education (2006) from Troy University and a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from Columbus State University (2002).

Holmes has been assistant principal at West Smiths Station Elementary School for the past year. She was a K-12 instructional coach in Phenix City (2013-15), taught reading intervention, second grade and fourth grade at Lakewood (2004-13), fourth grade at Beauregard Elementary School (2000-04) and sixth grade at Phenix City Intermediate School (1999-2000). She earned a specialist’s degree in instructional leadership and administration from Auburn University (2015), a master’s degree in instructional leadership and administration from Troy University (2013), a master’s degree in communication from Auburn (2003) and a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Troy (1999).

Wilkes explained why Allen-Averett and Holmes were selected out of approximately 50 applicants.

“They’re enthusiastic,” he said. “As far as instruction, they have very good backgrounds. Their leadership skills stood out. … This will be their first principalship. But I think all of us, as we interviewed, we felt that they have the talent and the ability from a management standpoint and an instructional standpoint to lead our teachers and to lead our schools.”

This story was originally published April 29, 2016 at 4:46 PM with the headline "Phenix City Board of Education gives superintendent raise, hires 2 principals."