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Dr. Charles Lawson’s contract to conclude in 2024-2025 school year

The Coffee County Schools Board of Education declined to renew the contract of Director of Schools Dr. Charles Lawson for an additional four years during its regular meeting July 10.

Board members voted 4-4, with Brent Parsley, Larry Crabtree, Kathy Rose and Gary Nester voting in favor of renewing the contract while Freda K. Jones, Jennifer Peacock-Hodge, Thomas Ballard and Gary Cordell voting against the measure.

Both Jones and Peacock Hodge said they would prefer the renewal vote be done next year before voting no. Ballard said he believed the vote should be postponed until the full board could be present before voting no. Board member Robert Gilley was not present for the meeting.

Board member Larry Crabtree made the official motion to renew Lawson’s contract, which will conclude at the close of the 2024-2025 academic year.

“As the chairman of the Director’s Evaluation Committee we met last week and after careful deliberation came to a consensus to make a recommendation, and therefore as chairman of that committee I move that we renew Dr. Lawson’s contract for four-years based upon the contract as it is presented in our documentation tonight,” Crabtree said.

Lawson has served as director of schools for Coffee County since June 2019 when he was originally hired with a three-year contract and a salary of $115,000. His contract was later renewed in October 2021 for four years and a $5,000 raise in a 4-3 vote.

Had board members approved it, Lawson’s contract would have been extended for four more years from this time until June 2027 with a salary of $144,095.

Nester asked Lawson to explain the advantages for the district in renewing his contract at the present time, providing him with a minimum of four more years rather than two.

“The reason for this is based upon my experience the first time I had a renewal,” Lawson said.

Lawson said during his previous contract renewal multiple delays pushed the board vote until October of the last year in his contract, and had it not renewed, he would have had only eight months to prepare for a significant financial change in his life.

Had he waited until next year, Lawson said the 2024 Board of Education election could have interfered with his contract renewal, as there are state limitations negotiating a director of school’s contract for so many days both before and after an election.

“I decided I needed to see what others had done, so I pulled out my predecessors contracts and I noticed that each time my predecessor got down to two years she asked for a renewal to go to four years and I thought, well that would solve it,” Lawson said.

During the meeting Jones asked Lawson to explain his vision for Coffee County Schools if the board were to extend his contract for four more years.

“…I would like to continue to make more of a difference,” Lawson said. “I will say this, the last four years there has been more of a difference made in compensation than in any other four year period that I can find in Coffee County history. I will say the improvement of facilities, I would like to see that continue…, I am going to say within the next 12 months we have to start discussions with the Commission about updating East Coffee Elementary and Hickerson Elementary…

“….Basically I have provided board members with a document showing all that has happened in the last four years, what I see for the next four is a continuation of that and that is just where we are,” Lawson added.

In the document submitted to board members, Lawson said during his tenure as director of schools, “Coffee County Schools has continued to operate through a pandemic, has enjoyed academic and athletic success, has seen employee compensation grow at unprecedented rates, and has experienced significant facility expansions and improvements. “At the same time all of this has occurred, the amount of money available in both restricted and unrestricted fund balances has increased more than in any other four-year period in Coffee County Schools’ history.”

“While there have been new sources of revenue during my tenure, primarily ESSER, dealing with the conditions that created and were created by these funds illustrate the quality of leadership I have provided. The accomplishments during my tenure are evidence that my contract should be renewed,” Lawson wrote.

Nester asked board members to consider the whole picture before casting their vote, including the five-year plan the district is currently working to develop.

“I know some probably do not want to renew it, some are absolutely for it, some are absolutely against it,” he said. “I guess I am looking at our system and we are all anxious to have a five year plan for him and we are going to spend a lot of money getting together multiple times as a board to try to develop this plan but yet, we are not giving him the support that says you are going to be here five years.”

“I think we have to be open minded and if we are going to accomplish these things one of the ways to do that is to renew the contract,” Nester added. “I would like us to have a vision down the road for where we want to go as a school.”

Lawson said during the meeting that if his contract were not renewed, the conversation about hiring Coffee County’s next director of schools needs to begin immediately.

Board member Robert Gilley said July 13 that he was not able to attend the board meeting July 10 due to being out of the country for both work and recreation. Gilley said he attempted to make accommodations with the board to attend virtually, but it did not work out.

“Irrational decisions and failure of accountability is changing the tides,” Gilley said in a statement July 13. “The majority has had enough.”

The next Coffee County Schools Board of Education meeting will be Monday, Aug. 14.