Severance bomb defused in KC schools
Lewis DiuguidKansas City Public Schools officials deserve praise for defusing a costly improvised explosive device left behind by outgoing superintendent John Covington.
Covington apparently redrafted contracts for some of his top administrators in the school district increasing their severance pay before his own hasty retreat from town. Covington had been the best hope for the school district’s turnaround.
But he abruptly left, and the school district has been in turmoil ever since, losing its accreditation and coming under siege from the state wanting to take it over or dismantle it altogether. Even Kansas City Mayor Sly James has a bid in to run the schools.
Covington told The Star from his new education post in Michigan that his adding to administrators’ severance pay was meant help recruit and retain top administrators. As Nat King Cole sang in “Straighten Up and Fly Right:” “Your story is mighty touching, but it sounds just like a lie.”
In reality, Covington’s little bomb would have encouraged people employed by the Kansas City district to leave particularly if they were recruited away to Michigan by Covington himself. Some of his administrators did follow him to the northern state but didn’t get the added pay.
Fortunately Kansas City school officials defused Covington’s handiwork.
Google+
Share
Tweet
Kent Mueller
2 months, 4 weeks agoThere need to be a lot more known for this story to be fair.
Was Covington already preparing to leave the district when he made those adjustments to those contracts? If so, then this looks to be potentially really bad. But only potentially.
Did Covington have the authority to make those changes unilaterally? If not, were others involved? If others were involved, or knowledgeable, what do they have to say about it? If Covington did have the authority to make those changes unilaterally, is that a power we want one person in the district to have?
The tone of this column is clearly accusatory against Covington. The next to the last paragraph indicates that people would be encouraged to leave due to the increased severance. That paragraph also states that none of those who resigned to join Covington received the increased severance pay. I’m confused here, Lewis, do people who resign from the KCPS get severance pay? If not, why state that none of those who joined Covington received the severance pay. That is superfluous information. If KCPS employees get severance pay when they resign, then I ask why that is allowed.
This column leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
Rick Adams
2 months, 4 weeks agoKent,
When I have gone looking for a job as a the Superintendent of a large city I generally start looking a bit more than the week before I land the new job. Most of the time it takes a few months, perhaps close to a year.
Kind of think “ditto” for Covington. He knew he was leaving and started preparing for the day that it would happen.
Kent Mueller
2 months, 4 weeks agoRick….I’m not here to support Covington. Believe me. My point was that Lewis left a lot of pretty obvious questions unanswered. He clearly was out to put Covington in a bad light, but he only talks of innuendo. That’s my point.
And I agree most superintendents spend more than a week considering his next job. But you, too, only surmise that he knew he was leaving when he changed those contract terms. Maybe he did, and that is my point. Lewis implied that, so I would like for him to show that by listing some dates that would back that up. Also, Lewis implied that those contract changes would benefit people leaving to join Covington. How could that be, since I wouldn’t think they would receive severance pay if they resigned, instead of being terminated.
So, Rick, I was just asking Lewis to clarify what he said and what he implied.