Kent School Board extends superintendent’s contract to 2023

A second consecutive controversial 3-2 vote by the Kent School Board will extend Superintendent Calvin Watts’ contract to June 2023.

Board directors Denise Daniels, Maya Vengadasalam and Joe Bento approved the one-year extension during the June 23 virtual meeting. Michele Bettinger and Leslie Hamada voted against the extension. The current Kent School District contract for Watts expires in June 2022. He was hired by the district in 2015.

“I want to recognize not only the academic and leadership accomplishments but the grace and dignity Dr. Watts has brought to the district,” Daniels, the board president, said prior to the vote. “There’s been a campaign since I’ve been on the board (in 2017) to get rid of Dr. Watts and a lot of it was not accurate. A lot of it was based on what I believe were racial issues. I’ve experience racial comments and letters and I’ve seen comments on social media about Dr. Watts.”

The board split similar to the August 2020 vote. Daniels and Vengadasalama voted last year to extend Watts’ contract to June 2022. Bettinger and Hamada voted against the extension.

Bento, appointed by the board in February to replace Leah Bowen, who resigned after one year, made the deciding vote in favor of Watts just as Bowen did last year.

“I’m new to the board and I don’t know past stuff except for what I’ve seen in the local paper and that’s not always the only way to judge what’s going on in the district,” Bento said prior to the vote. “We have had a year or 15 months of COVID and it’s not going away. We need consistency to get us through the next year. I’m in favor of a year extension, I need to see what happens (in a year) that’s not COVID.”

Bento said he received lots of emails for and against the contract extension but was more comfortable to see what things can get done in the district when not dealing with a pandemic.

Prior to the contract vote, Hamada proposed delaying a vote for six months to allow two new board members that voters will elect in November to decide the future of Watts. Bettinger agreed with the delay. But Daniels, Vengadasalam and Bento voted against any delay in the vote.

“In a few months there will be a whole new board,” Hamada said. “We should let them have the opportunity to weigh in, and it gives us plenty of time to extend the contract at that time.”

Hamada compared a delay in the contract vote to selling a house.

“If I am going to sell my house, I wouldn’t want to decide on the exterior or interior for the person coming into the house,” she said. “I would let them do it.”

The board terms for Daniels and Vengadasalam end this year and neither one is running for reelection, meaning two new members will join the board after the November election. Daniels was elected in 2017 and Vengadasalam reelected in 2017 to a second four-year term.

Since Bento was appointed by the board, he must run to retain his seat but nobody decided to challenge him. Hamada and Bettinger were elected to four-year terms in 2019.

Daniels strongly disagreed with letting new board members decide about Watts.

“When talking about six months it appears you are interested in having a new board possibly determine whether the superintendent contract should be extended,” Daniels said. “I think that would be a misstep because new board members would not have the knowledge or experience or information to make that decision intelligently in my opinion. …unless they have been following the district regularly and I’m not sure if that would be the case.”

Daniels continued with more reasons to retain Watts.

“Superintendent roles are difficult to fill,” Daniels said. “And I think about Dr Watts and his future. It takes a while to fill the position and beginning the search. …him not having security and what that looks like for his family.”

Daniels said the return to in-person learning in the fall and a levy to pass are reasons to extend the contract for Watts.

“There are large items coming up that would be very difficult with a new board and a new superintendent,” she said. “It will be a very difficult and heavy lift over the next year. I don’t feel (a delay) would be the best move for students or staff.”

Vengadasalam said she agreed with Daniels that school boundary decisions, two new schools opening in the fall, levy discussions, how to spend federal COVID-19 relief funds and the school district budget are all items that need Watts and his staff to handle.

“It could be a calamity if they decide to leave at this point of time,” she said.

Vengadasalam said she also had concerns that the work on equity and race matters could fall through the cracks without the leadership of Watts and his team.

Daniels claimed during her comments that Bettinger and Hamada ran for the school board with the plan to remove Watts from his job.

“If you were implying that I ran on changing the superintendent, I never said that while running,” Bettinger said.

Bettinger said her concerns include a strategic plan expiring in seven days with many goals never met and declining test scores.

“But my biggest area of concern is students with inclusive education,” she said. “I don’t see a lot of support for inclusive ed students, so I think we should wait (to extend the contract).”

Watts was hired in 2015 for an annual salary of $250,000. A controversial 3-1 vote in 2018 extended his contract one more year to June 2021. His annual pay is now at $279,500, according to a district spokesperson. The contract extension just approved does not include any pay increase. The contract approved in 2020 allows the board to consider a percentage increase, if any, for the subsequent year of employment.

In 2018, teachers and principals each delivered votes of no confidence in Watts.

Editor’s note: This story was updated with the current salary for Watts.

Kent School Board directors Denise Daniels, Michele Bettinger, Maya Vengadasalam, Leslie Hamada and Joe Bento. COURTESY PHOTO, Kent School District