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Local school boards, which sometimes pay big bucks to buy out the contracts of superintendents whose services they no longer desire, may soon find themselves limited in what they can spend on such agreements.
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South Carolina lawmakers, tired of the large payouts, are on the verge of restricting them.
A measure inserted in the state budget at the request of South Carolina schools chief Ellen Weaver would require local school boards to include language in future superintendent contracts specifying that mutual separation agreements may not exceed one year’s salary or the remainder of the contract value, whichever is less.
The provision does not limit a superintendent’s right to file a legal claim alleging wrongful termination or cap the amount a district would have to pay if found to have fired a superintendent without cause.
“The (South Carolina Department of Education) believes these taxpayer funds would better serve the students for whom they are intended by going to classroom instruction rather than golden parachutes,” Weaver wrote in
To support its proposal, the department cited news articles documenting the growing number of district superintendents who received contract buyouts that exceeded their annual pay.
Recent local examples include former Richland 2 superintendent Baron Davis, who got a $615,000 payout in 2023, and former Lexington 2 superintendent Nicholas Wade, who received $240,000 to resign in 2022.
Last month, budget negotiators virtually identical to one Weaver proposed in her request.
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The one-year measure, or proviso, will go into effect once lawmakers pass a spending plan. While technically temporary laws, provisos are often renewed indefinitely once inserted in the budget.
Scott Price, executive director of the South Carolina School Boards Association, said the interest group had no formal position on the golden parachute proviso, although he preferred the adopted House version to a more expansive Senate proposal that would have extended buyout restrictions to all school district employees.
Price said he doesn’t view excessive superintendent buyouts as a particularly pressing or widespread issue in the state, but does have concerns that limiting such payouts could make it harder for South Carolina to attract and retain talented school leaders.
“We sometimes draw from North Carolina, Georgia and other areas in the Southeast that may or may not have a similar provision,” he said. “Does that put us at a disadvantage? I don’t know, but I think it’s an interesting question.”
One thing Price said he thinks will come from capping superintendent separation payments is an increase in lawsuits filed over contract breaches.
While school boards can currently work with district leaders to reach mutually agreeable buyout terms without resorting to litigation, they’ll have less ability to do that in the future, he said.
“You never want to have to go down the path of litigation, if you don’t have to,” Price said. “This makes it more likely, depending on what the circumstances are.”
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