Dan Snowberger, superintendent of Durango School District 9-R, will receive an automatic one-year contract renewal at the end of the month, extending his contract through June 30, 2020.
The 9-R school board took no action during its meeting Tuesday night – clearing the way for the automatic renewal to take effect. Snowberger is currently under contract through June 30, 2019.
Nancy Stubbs, school board president, said a review of Snowberger’s performance during an executive session on Jan. 9 found he was in compliance with 152 categories on which he is evaluated. The school board evaluates Snowberger twice during each academic year.
“We found he’s not perfect,” Stubbs said, “nobody is.”
But she added he is in compliance with the vast majority of criteria on which he is evaluated, and she said a work plan will be developed to work on areas where he is out of compliance.
“He not only does what he says, but you’d be amazed at the amount of work he does, and it’s focused on the students,” she said.
One critic, Sandy Bielenberg, a former 9-R teacher, said planning time for teachers had declined during Snowberger’s tenure.
School planning days she said include too many meetings that don’t impact classroom improvement and took away from planning for classes. “Teachers’ planning time has not been honored,” she said of Snowberger’s guidance, during public comment time of the meeting.
Snowberger earns $166,000 annually, has a $600 per-month car allowance. He receives the same benefit package as all 9-R employees covering health, dental, life insurance and four weeks of vacation annually.
The extension will not affect Snowberger’s pay or benefit package. Snowberger’s salary and benefits are usually negotiated in September, when the board evaluates the district’s results policies and operational expectation policies.
Snowberger’s annual salary was set this fall after a salary comparison found superintendents of districts similar to 9-R received salaries ranging from $150,000 to $190,000.
parmijo@durangoherald.com This story has been clarified to note Dan Snowberger is currently under contract with the Durango School District 9-R through June 30, 2019.
