The Oconee County Board of Education would like to keep it a secret, but it is nearly certain to extend Superintendent Jason Branch’s contract another year--until June 30, 2027--following an executive session at either its Aug. 5 or Aug. 12 meeting.
The Board voted on Aug. 14, 2023, to extend Branch’s contract to June 30, 2026, with a base salary of $253,071 and added benefits that were budgeted to bring that amount to $284,810.
The contract stipulated that the Board would inform Branch before Aug. 31, 2024, whether it will extend the contract beyond June 30, 2026.
The Board also has been secretive about the meetings during which Branch's contract has been renewed in the past. The agenda for that Aug. 14, 2023, meeting did not indicate that the Board was considering Branch’s contract. The personnel report, released after the meeting, made no mention of the Board action.
Only the minutes of that meeting, released several days later, indicated that “The board voted 5-0 to approve a contract of employment between Dr. Jason Branch and Oconee County Schools.” The contract was not attached to the minutes.
The minutes of the Aug. 8, 2022, meeting also indicate that the Board renewed Branch’s contract in a unanimous vote, as do the minutes of the Aug. 2, 2021, meeting, again unanimously. Nothing on the agendas of either meeting anticipated that action, and the personnel reports do not list Branch or include a copy of his contract.
Despite that pattern and the contractual requirement, Kim Argo, Chair of the Board of Education, has refused to confirm that Branch’s contract will be discussed at either the Aug. 5 or Aug. 12 meeting this year.
The contract approved by the Board last August also stipulated that the Board would evaluate Branch’s performance by May 30 of each year, but Oconee County Schools has refused to indicate what criteria were used in that evaluation.
Details Of Contract
Branch’s contract, approved last August, is an eight-page document that spells out the terms of the agreement, the responsibilities of the superintendent, compensation and other benefits, and evaluation.
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| Branch And Argo 4/15/2024 |
Oconee County Schools released the document with a four-business day delay in response to an open records request.
The contract says that the Board employs Branch for a term of three years beginning on July 1, 2023, and ending on June 30, 2026, and that the Board will notify Branch “in writing, on or before Aug. 31, 2024" if the contract will be extended beyond June 30, 2026.
The Board action at either of the two upcoming Board meetings likely will add another year to that contract, meaning Branch will be employed until June 30, 2027.
The superintendent “shall be responsible for the administration of the School District, consistent with the policies enacted by the Board,” the contract reads.
The contract sets the base salary at $253,071, paid monthly, and provides additional benefits, including dues and membership fees, a $1,000 monthly travel allowance, a cell phone, and his employee share of premiums (family plan) for health insurance, for dental insurance, and for vision insurance.
The contract also states that the District will pay up to 15 percent of Branch’s salary to the district retirement annuity and 3.5 percent of his salary to the state Teacher Retirement System.
The contract also states that the Board will pay $864 of the premium for long-term disability insurance for Branch.
Total Compensation
Because the Board has been unwilling to release a detailed budget for the current fiscal year, it isn’t possible to know what amount is budgeted for Branch’s total compensation package.
Last year, that figure was $284,810.
The Year-To-Date Budget Report for this past May showed that $260,032 of that amount had been spent, or an average of $23,639 per month. If that average holds, the actual amount spent will be 283,671, or just under the budgeted amount.
The Board has not released the June Budget Report.
At a special budget session held on April 15, Katie Childers, Director of Finance for Oconee County Schools, said that the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget includes $564,189 for executive staff.
She said that includes three people, the superintendent, a central office administrative clerk, and an executive administrative assistant.
Salary Comparisons
Branch’s base salary in last year’s contract of $253,071, up from $241,020 the year before, made him the best paid public employee in Oconee County.
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| Board With Branch 7/8/2024 |
Closest in salary was Justin Kirouac, in some ways his parallel as County Administrator, whose Fiscal Year 2024 actual total compensation was $144,999, according to county records. Kirouac is budgeted at $153,700 for Fiscal Year 2025.
Oconee County Attorney Pam Hendrix, who has become a persistent critic of the Board of Education and of Branch specifically, focused on Branch’s contract in comments she made on July 8 at the final of three public hearings on the tax increase the Board ultimately approved.
“Our superintendent gets a three-year contract. Our teachers get a one-year contract. Why is that?” asked Hendrix on July 8.
The contract states that, if the Board unilaterally terminates the contract with Branch in the first two years of the three year contract, the Board must pay Branch a settlement sum “equal to twelve (12) months total aggregate salary.”
If the Board unilaterally terminates the contract in the final 12 months of the contract, the Board agrees to pay a settlement sum “equal to nine (9) months total aggregate salary, including all benefits.”
Hendrix said back in February she planned to run for the Board of Education in the May primaries, but she switched to run, unsuccessfully, for chair of the Board of Commissioners in the May Republican Primary.
Request For Contract
On May 29, I sent an email message to Steven Colquitt, Director of Communications and Open Records Officer for Oconee County Schools, asking for “a copy of the contract of employment between Dr. Jason Branch and Oconee County Schools approved as reflected in the minutes below from the Board of Education meeting of 8/14/2023.”
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| Colquitt Before Board 7/8/2024 |
I had a copy of Branch’s contract from August of 2023, but I wanted to be certain I had the most recent copy.
Colquitt wrote back at the end of the day on May 30 saying:
“This email serves as confirmation of your email sent and received by my office on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Your email was a request for information about the superintendent's contract under the Georgia Open Records Act and is in accordance with the three-day period of response pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71(b)(2).”
“With respect to your request, I will reach out to departments where responsive records may exist so that we can prepare search, retrieval, review, and production time/cost estimates. I anticipate having an update for you by Tuesday, June 4, 2024.”
At the end of the day on June 4, I received a copy of the contract.
Email To Argo
Late in the day on July 18, I sent an email to Board Chair Argo.
“In years past, you have extended the contract for Dr. Branch in the executive session of an August meeting,” I wrote
“Will you be considering an extension of Dr. Branch's contract on either Aug. 5 or Aug. 12?” I asked.
The morning of July 19, Argo replied.
“Thank you for your email,” she wrote.
“Personnel matters are considered by the Board during executive session, so it would be inappropriate to discuss them publicly before formal action is taken in an open meeting.”
Request For Evaluation Form
Branch’s contract specifies that the Board “shall meet annually to establish goals and objectives for the School District for each school year. Such goals and objectives shall be in writing and will be part of the criteria by which” Branch is evaluated.
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| Evaluation Form From Colquitt 7/25/2024 |
The contract states that the Board annually must evaluate the performance of Branch and “The evaluation shall be reasonably related to the position of Superintendent and the goals and objectives of the School District.”
Georgia Code also requires an annual evaluation of the superintendent and references use of an “annual evaluation instrument.”
In an email to Colquitt on July 22, I asked for “the evaluation instrument used by the Oconee County Board of Education for the evaluation of Dr. Jason Branch in 2023 and the evaluation instrument that has been used or that will be used by the Oconee County Board of Education for the evaluation of Dr. Jason Branch in 2024.”
At the end of the day on July 23, Colquitt responded.
“This email serves as confirmation of your email sent and received by my office on Monday, July 22, 2024. Your email was a request for information about evaluations under the Georgia Open Records Act and is in accordance with the three-day period of response pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71(b)(2),” he wrote.
“With respect to your request, I will reach out to departments where responsive records may exist so that we can prepare search, retrieval, review, and production time/cost estimates. I anticipate having an update for you by Thursday, July 25, 2024,” he continued.
At the end of the day on July 25, he provided a form.
The form contains boxes for goals and indicators, but the boxes are empty. None of the goals or indicators are specified.
Second Request
Because Oconee County Schools submitted an application to the Georgia School Boards Association Board Recognition Awards for 2023, I submitted an open records request on July 29 for the application materials for that recognition.
I knew that the Board had been designated as Exemplary and that the application for the Exemplary status required the Board to include its evaluation form for the superintendent in the application.
Specifically, it states that the applicant must “Provide the latest Superintendent Evaluation Instrument including Superintendent’s goals, evidence, and/or data.”
In response to my request, Colquitt provided his formulaic response late in the day on July 30 telling me “I will reach out to departments where responsive records may exist.” He also said he would get an estimate of the costs and he anticipated “having an update for you by Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024.”
At the end of the day on Aug. 1, he provided me with the application materials for a different Board Award program, the Leading Edge Award. The form indicated that Colquitt submitted the application himself, meaning he did not have to “reach out to departments where responsive records may exist.”
Third Request
Late on that evening (Aug. 1), I sent Colquitt an email saying he sent me the wrong application material and I wanted him to send me the correct application today (Aug. 2).
At 4 p.m. today (Aug. 2), Colquitt sent me an electronic application file, labeled “GSBA BOE Exemplary Board 2023-24.pdf.”
Included in that file is the statement that the latest superintendent evaluation was completed on June 30, 2023, using a form labeled “2022-2023_OCS_Superintendent_Evaluation.pdf.” That form was uploaded with the application.
The link to the actual form, on the Georgia School Board Association web site, however, is broken, producing the message “The page or resource you are looking for has expired— it is gone and will not be coming back.”
I searched for the document “2022-2023_OCS_Superintendent_Evaluation.pdf”on the OCS web pages as well as on the GSBA simbli site used for Oconee County Board of Education for meetings and for documents.
The searches did not produce the document.
The evaluation form with blank entries for the criteria that Colquitt had sent me on July 25 has been labeled “evaulaton forms.pdf”. The incorrect spelling is in the original.
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