The Oconee County Board of Education has agreed to pay Superintendent Jason Branch a base salary of $267,039 for the current year, up $13,968, or 5.5 percent, from his salary of $253,071 last year.
In addition to the base salary, the contract the Board approved on Monday night also includes a long list of other 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.
Last year, the Board budgeted $284,810 as Branch’s total compensation, but it has not yet released the budgeted figure for the current fiscal year. That figure, based on the contract approved by the Board on Monday, will have to be at least $298,778 and likely will be higher.
Board Chair Kim Argo refused on Monday to release Branch’s contract after the Board voted to approve it in an open meeting. None of the other four Board members objected to her decision.
The only detail released by the Board was that the contract was extended by another year to June 30, 2027.
Steven Colquitt, Director of Communications for Oconee County Schools, delayed the release of the contract until 4 p.m. Friday following the filing of open records request at 12:44 a.m. on Tuesday.
Colquitt on Friday also rejected a separate open records request also filed early on Tuesday morning asking for the criteria that were used to evaluate Branch’s performance. The contract specifies that Branch is to be evaluated each year prior to issuance of a new contract based on criteria it sets.
Contract
The nine-page contract Colquitt released on Friday says it was approved by the Board of Education “at a public meeting duly held on the 5 day of August, 2024" and “has been made a part of the official minutes of that meeting.”
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| Argo At Meeting 8/5/2024 |
Chair Argo as well as Vice Chair Amy Parrish signed the contract on behalf of the Board.
Except for the salary increase, the contract seems to be a replica of the 2023 contract.
In the past, the Board has not publicized the issuance of a new contract for Branch.
But on Monday, about 40 minutes after the Board approved the contract extension for Branch, Oconee County Schools issued a news release saying the Board had extended Branch’s contract.
The news release did not state Branch’s salary, but it said that Branch will receive a 4 percent raise consistent with the salary increase for other school employees and the usual step increase that employees receive for years in service.
Release of the contract shows that the 4 percent salary increase plus the added step in pay amounts to $13,968 in Branch’s case.
Branch is beginning his 13th years as superintendent of Oconee County Schools.
Branch’s base salary last year increased $12,051 over his salary of $241,020 in 2022. That was an increase of 5.0 percent.
Based on Branch’s base salary alone he is the highest paid public employee in the county by a large amount. The next best paid public employee is Oconee County Administrator Justin Kirouac, whose budgeted salary for this fiscal year is $153,700.
Criteria For Evaluation
The Board, according to last year contract with Branch, was supposed to perform an evaluation of him on or before May 30 of this year.
Georgia Code also requires an annual evaluation of the superintendent and references use of a recommended “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.”
I specified “that I am not seeking the completed form, but only the instrument used in the evaluation itself.”
On July 25, Colquitt provided a form that contained boxes for goals and indicators, but the boxes were empty. None of the goals or indicators were specified.
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.”
Second Response
On Aug. 1, Colquitt provided me with the application materials for a different Board Award program, the Leading Edge Award.
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| Branch At Meeting 8/5/2024 |
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 the next day.
At the end of the day on 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, was broken, producing the message “The page or resource you are looking for has expired— it is gone and will not be coming back.”
Fourth Request
In my email request early in the morning of Aug. 6, I stated that “I am seeking the actual document showing the evaluation form used for evaluating Superintendent Jason Branch that Oconee County Schools uploaded to the Georgia School Board Association as part of the application for Board Recognition Awards in 2023-24.”
Colquitt acknowledged that request, as well as the one filed for Branch’s new contract, at 5 p.m. on July 7.
In both cases, 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 Friday, Aug. 9, 2024.”
At 4:01 on Friday, Colquitt wrote “Records which are related to employee performance evaluations which are made confidential under O.C.G.A § 20-2-210(a) will not be produced (O.C.G.A. §50-18-72(a)(7)).”
O.C.G.A § 20-2-210(a) states that “All such performance evaluation records shall be part of the personnel evaluation file and shall be confidential.”
O.C.G.A. §50-18-72(a)(7) states that public disclosure is not required for “Records consisting of confidential evaluations submitted to, or examinations prepared by, a governmental agency and prepared in connection with the appointment or hiring of a public officer or employee.”
I had not requested the records or the confidential evaluations, but only the criteria that were used in the evaluation called for in the contract.
It would have been possible for Colquitt to redact any personnel information from any form that had been submitted to the Georgia School Board Association.
The only recourse to this rejection is a request to the Attorney General for assistance and the filing of legal action against Oconee County Schools
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