No Changes Made to Attleboro Schools Superintendent's Contract

After two meetings of public drama in which she was accused of a policy violation and School Committee members called for a search for her replacement, Attleboro school district Superintendent Pia Durkin on Monday accepted the terms of a one-year contract extension that keep her salary and benefits the same as they are for the current year.

Chair Mike Tyler announced at the meeting Monday night that Durkin had accepted the offer from the School Committee's executive committee earlier in the day. The School Committee , but the details were not finalized at that time.

Durkin's base salary is $156,000, Tyler said after the meeting.

The three-member executive committee had proposed eliminating a $10,000 payment toward the superintendent's benefits package for 2012-13. Durkin rejected this plan through a notification to all nine School Committee members, . A disciplinary hearing took place in public last month, with the School Committee voting 5-3 that Durkin should not receive an official reprimand.

School Committee member Teri Enegren said at the May 7 meeting that Durkin's rejection of the executive committee's proposal without making a counter-offer . Durkin said this was not true. Enegren called for the formation of a superintendent search committee, but was unable to get majority support for this from her colleagues.

Tyler said the recent contract offer from the executive committee was made following a May 7 executive session of the full School Committee.

"This was the right thing to do, we've had too much staff turnover," said Tyler after this week's School Committee meeting. "We need to be focused on getting everybody ready for September."