Eugene superintendent Sheldon Berman to leave after next year

June 26--The upcoming school year will be the last year that Sheldon Berman will serve as the Eugene School District's superintendent.

The Eugene School Board Wednesday evening unanimously approved Berman's request to be released from his contract one year early "due to family circumstances."

Board members did not hold a public discussion of Berman's decision to leave the district before the 2015-16 school year.

"I understand putting family first," school board Chairwoman Mary Walston told Berman. "We appreciate what you've given to the community. We look forward to the next year working with you."

Berman, 65, did not elaborate on the family circumstances or other factors prompting him to ask to be released early from his contract.

"It's really personal," he said, adding that it was in the "best interest of my family to do this."

"It's always a hard decision to make," he said of leaving the district.

Wednesday night's action follows several months in which the board has delayed its evaluation of Berman's job performance. Most recently, the board delayed evaluating Berman publicly on June 4.

Board members on Wednesday approved an agreement that, among other things, relieves Berman from his obligation to be evaluated annually by the board.

Walston said after Wednesday's meeting that an evaluation wouldn't "provide anything" for the district and it would add unnecessary costs.

"What's the point?" Walston said. She did not elaborate on Berman's decision, saying that it's a personnel issue.

The agreement also stripped Berman of his out-of-state travel reimbursement, except to attend one conference.

The decision not to evaluate Berman had not been made or announced prior to Wednesday. Board members earlier had planned to each fill out an evaluation form by April 14, though members never completed those evaluations, district Chief of Staff Barb Bellamy said.

"Things got really busy, really fast," Bellamy said. She said it's typical for board members to delay a superintendent's evaluation because of their demanding schedules.

Under Berman's contract, the school board was expected to review his performance each year by April 30 or soon after. The board, however, has yet to meet that deadline since Berman was hired in 2011.School board members had discussed since February the process for evaluating Berman. Board member Beth Gerot wrote in an email to her colleagues that they would go over their performance review with Berman on May 21 and discuss the evaluation in public on June 4.

That email was one of few released to The Register-Guard earlier this month in response to a records request made in late April. The district blacked out dozens of pages of emails and text messages, citing several state laws -- and one federal health privacy law -- that allows government agencies to keep some information secret.

The district said it could not release some of the emails between board members discussing Berman, citing a state law that allows conversations between government officials to remain secret if agencies can prove that the public interest in encouraging "frank communication" between officials outweighs the public interest in disclosure.

The district also said that disclosing some information in the records would be an unreasonable invasion of privacy.

Prior to Wednesday night, board members for months had not met publicly or behind closed doors to discuss the superintendent's evaluation or contract. A nonpublic session scheduled in April to discuss Berman's evaluation was canceled and not rescheduled.

Walston said earlier this month in a prepared statement that the board believes "it is important to gather frank and confidential opinions from a variety of people in order to conduct a meaningful evaluation."

"As a board, we understand the importance of transparency and our duty to conduct deliberations and arrive at board decisions in public," Walston wrote. "In the course of effectively carrying out our official responsibilities, it is sometimes necessary to offer confidentiality, to privately consult with our legal counsel, and to have frank and candid conversations with other board members."

Berman's own self-evaluation and 14-page memo about his job performance that he sent to board members in early April was blacked out. Berman agreed before filling out the self-evaluation that "unless my answers are treated as exempt from compelled public disclosure, my full participation in the evaluation process will be impaired."

The district charged The Register-Guard $648 for the mostly redacted documents. The payment covered two hours of attorney work, at $324 a hour, Bellamy said.

The board last year publicly evaluated Berman in September, giving him largely a positive review. Berman received a 5 percent salary increase, boosting his salary to $192,358 during the just-ended school year -- which takes into account the nine unpaid furlough days he worked.

Berman automatically receives the salary "step" increase, which is written in his contract. He also receives $12,000 in a tax-sheltered annuity and $6,600 in an auto allowance. He does not receive health insurance or retirement benefits, unlike other superintendents in the state.

He will receive another 5 percent salary step increase for the next school year, pushing his base salary to $209,229.

If Berman had been paid for an entire 260-day work year with no furlough days, his base salary would be $199,266. That's the highest base salary of any public school superintendent in the state, including the superintendent of the state's largest school district, Portland Public Schools, which serves about 47,000 students. The Eugene district enrolls about 16,000 students.

The base salary for the superintendent of North Clackamas School District -- a district with enrollment similar to Eugene -- is $159,000 annually, while the Hillsboro School District superintendent's base salary is $175,135 a year, according to data compiled by the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators.

The board did not discuss Berman's salary publicly last year.

Berman served as superintendent of the 100,000-student Jefferson County School District in Louisville, Ky., from 2007 to 2011. In the Eugene district, he succeeded George Russell, who served in the top position for 13 years.

Follow Josephine on Twitter @j_woolington . Email [email protected] .

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