Portland school superintendent gets three-year contract extension, 1-percent raise

Portland School Superintendent Emmanuel Caulk flanked, by Lyman Moore Middle School Principal Stephen Rogers (left) and school board member Justin Costa, speaks at a press conference in 2012. (BDN file photo by Troy R. Bennett)

Portland School Superintendent Emmanuel Caulk flanked, by Lyman Moore Middle School Principal Stephen Rogers (left) and school board member Justin Costa, speaks at a press conference in 2012. (BDN file photo by Troy R. Bennett)

The Portland Public Schools announced tonight that the Board of Public Education voted unanimously to extend Superintendent Emmanuel Caulk’s contract by three years — pushing his pact out from a 2016 expiration date to 2019.

Emmanuel Caulk (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

Emmanuel Caulk (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

The move is notable, because it represents the second time in nine months the board has given Caulk a contract extension. The former Philadelphia school administrator was hired on a three-year deal in 2012, and in February of this year — with a year and a half to go — the board voted to add a year.

On Tuesday night, the board voted again to add three more. Caulk passed on a 5-percent raise he was eligible for in February in part out of respect for a tough budget cycle.

This time around, the board gave the superintendent a raise, but it was a modest one of 1 percent, bumping him up from $137,500 to $138,875. The board also gave Caulk a one-time bonus of $1,375.

Board Chairwoman Sarah Thompson said the following in a Tuesday night statement:

“Based on a thorough review of his performance and progress toward achieving the goals we have established, the board is pleased to extend the superintendent’s contract for three years, through June 30, 2019. The board has agreed that Superintendent Caulk has earned that extension and that it is important to demonstrate our support for his continued leadership and his dedication to the mission of the Portland Public Schools. Extending his contract allows him time to realize the goal of having the Portland Public Schools become the best small urban school district in the country by 2017.”

In the district’s Tuesday night announcement, Thompson touted Caulk’s Principal for a Day program, which brings local business leaders into the schools. One of those business leaders was from EnviroLogix CEO John Markin, and that experience grew into this year’s STEM Expo of student learning (click here for more on that).

The Principal for a Day program — and STEM Expo that emerged from it — is an example of Caulk’s efforts to overcome budgetary constraints by finding partners and learning opportunities in the community. Other steps have included launching a survey of parents, a blog, a book club, a community e-newsletter due to come out later this month, according to tonight’s announcement.

“He is always looking for ways to foster connections between the Portland Public Schools and parents and other community stakeholders,” Thompson said in a statement.

Here’s an excerpt from the story I wrote about Caulk’s previous contract extension in February, as much of it’s still accurate this time around:

While the period of transition in Portland has settled down in recent months, the decision to secure Caulk may help calm public nerves in the aftermath of heavy turnover at City Hall. Caulk was hired in 2012, in the midst of an approximately two-year period in which Portland hired a new city manager, fire chief, police chief, deputy city manager, planning director, top attorney and mayor.

Caulk also took the post after his predecessor, James Morse, held the position for only three years before deciding not to seek a contract renewal.

In his nearly 18 months on the job, Caulk has already presided over a difficult budget cycle, in which city and school leaders blamed state budget cuts for a spending plan that included approximately 40 job cuts. …

Under Caulk’s watch, the district has also acted quickly to acquire and renovate the 50,000-square-foot former Goodwill Industries building on Cumberland Avenue, providing much-needed new permanent homes for the department’s central office, the West Program for students with emotional disabilities and mental health diagnoses, and the Multilingual and Multicultural Center.

Caulk was also on hand [in February] as Portland High School’s newly expanded and renovated in-house health center was dedicated in the name of longtime school nurse Amanda Rowe.

One of Caulk’s less successful initiatives was a proposal this fall to launch a virtual middle and high school using curriculum from Pearson PLC, the education firm behind Maine’s recently launched virtual charter school, as an effort to curb an outflow of students to that and other local charter schools. That plan was panned by Mayor Michael Brennan, state Education Commissioner James Rier and some school board members, and the superintendent dropped the idea — at least for now — in September.

Those who opposed the proposal said they were worried that a for-profit company would have such influence in the public schools’ curriculum.

But while that idea may have been a bit rushed and not quite fleshed out, the superintendent perhaps should get credit for trying to come up with a way to fight to retain students (and the $8,000-a-head tuition that comes with them) the Portland district is in danger of losing to the virtual charter school.

Under Caulk’s watch, the schools have also added a public Spanish immersion program and a high school Arabic course, both of which were firsts for the state of Maine.

Hear more from Caulk in this talk he delivered earlier this year to the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce:

Seth Koenig

About Seth Koenig

Seth has nearly a decade of professional journalism experience and writes about the greater Portland region.