Fox C-6 Board of Education members recently extended first-year Superintendent Paul Fregeau’s contract by one year and gave him a 3 percent raise. The board also has approved raises for the rest of the district’s 63 administrative and professional staff members, who, on average, will receive a pay increase of 1.38 percent, said John Stewart, the district’s chief financial officer.
Fregeau took over as the Fox superintendent on July 1, 2021, replacing Nisha Patel who is now superintendent of the Clayton School District.
When Fregeau was hired, he received a three-year contract at that time, and he is being paid a $222,500 this school year.
He will be paid $229,175, a $6,675 annual raise, for the 2022-2023 school, and his contract will run through the 2024-2025 school year.
Fox will pay $71,340 more next school year for administrative and professional staff members’ salaries. The district will pay $6,977,600 this school year and $7,048,940 for the 2022-2023 school year, district officials said.
The school board voted 6-1 in a March 29 closed meeting to extend Fregeau’s contract and give him the raise, with April Moeckel voting against Fregeau’s contract extension and raise, and Judy Smith, Krystal Hargis, Jim Chellew, Carole Yount, Michelle Chamberlain and Vicki Hanson voting yes on the extension and raise.
District officials said that when board members discuss a specific employee’s job performance and renewal of the person’s contract, that vote may be taken in closed session. Since other administrative contracts are approved as a group and job performance is not discussed, that vote is taken during open session, district officials said.
Moeckel said she isn’t displeased with Fregeau’s performance, but she didn’t like the pay raise.
“I voted really against the salary increase, but you can’t separate the two (contract extension and pay raise)” Moeckel said. “I’m really not in favor (of the salary increase) because I feel we spent too much on a superintendent in the first place with where our budget is at. I just feel giving him an increase of about $6,000 was a little too much at this time because the public has an issue with how much he is paid. I am all for him staying another year.”
Smith, who was board president at the time but did not seek re-election on April 5, said she believed Fregeau deserved the contract extension and salary increase.
“After about seven years of confusion and lack of academic importance, we finally have a superintendent who is putting students and academics on top,” Smith said. “Dr. Fregeau has pure motives and is focused on our students and their learning. He has the best interest of the district in mind, not himself or herself. We can finally move forward with a new superintendent and leadership team who will lead the way to consistencies throughout our schools.”
Fregeau’s contract extension during his first year at the Fox district was smoother than Patel’s in February 2020, when a majority of the board first voted against extending her contract, saying they wanted to revisit the issue in October instead. However, after a public outcry, the board met again in March 2020 and extended Patel’s initial three-year deal, which began July 2019, after she replaced Jim Wipke, who left to become superintendent of the Ladue School District. While the board ended up extending Patel’s contract by one year in March 2020, her $182,500 annual salary was not raised.
Chellew said he, too, approves of Fregeau’s work since taking over as superintendent.
“There is only one thing I am concerned with and that is our student performance has really fallen,” he said. “There were administrative changes structurally to our program that had a profound negative effect on our student performance. We produce learning. That is the product we produce, and if we don’t get that right, frankly, we don’t deserve to be there.
“What Dr. Fregeau has done is focus on what we need to do to recover the high performance this community enjoyed for many years relative to student learning. He has made every effort to try and acknowledge that and take action to fix it.”
Also on March 29, the school board voted 6-0 to ratify a three-year contract with the teaching staff that increased salaries by an average of 6.53 percent, said Kelly Bracht, assistant superintendent of human resources.
Moeckel abstained from the vote on the teachers’ contract, saying she wouldn’t vote against an increase in pay for teachers but couldn’t approve the raises because of Fox’s current financial situation.
Chellew said he believes administrative salaries should be tied to teacher salaries, and he acknowledged administrative salary increases were lower than those received by teachers.
“We are trying to put some consistency to how we give everyone an increase,” he said. “For years it was very simple. When I was superintendent, we would negotiate with the teachers and whatever percentage increase they got, everybody else got it. It didn’t matter if they were a bus driver or administrator; everyone got the same thing. That worked pretty well and kept everyone happy. We were able to do that within the budgets we had at that time. There were a few times we have asked for tax increases, but only when it was really needed.”
A list of administrator and professional employee salaries follow. Those with an asterisk by their salary will receive an annual $2,500 stipend for having a doctoral degree.
2022-23 administrator contracts
Paul Fregeau, superintendent, $229,175
Kelly Bracht, assistant superintendent of human resources, $151,264.75*
Randy Gilman, assistant superintendent of elementary education, $151,264.75*
Ryan Sherp, Fox High principal, $140,906.30*
Tammy Cardona, assistant superintendent of secondary education, $139,745.25*
Janine Hueter, Rockport Heights Elementary principal, $139,207.80
Bryan Clark, Simpson Elementary principal, $139,206.75
Mark Rudanovich, Antonia Elementary principal, $136,465.48
Jeffrey Krutzsch, Seckman High principal, $134,569.50
Jackie Waller, Guffey Elementary principal, $134,490.85
Daniel Baker, Seckman Elementary principal, $133,570.05
Dustin Bain, Meramec Heights Elementary principal, $126,613.99*
Gina Buehner, Hamrick Elementary principal, $125,660
Joseph Salsman, Fox High assistant principal, $124,218
Marilyn Jackson, Fox Middle principal, $119,311.39*
Matthew Metz, Antonia Middle principal, $119,311.39
Robert Townsley, director of early childhood education, $119,311.39*
Kim Loomis, director of federal programming and HR, $117,935
Stacy Dockery, director of special services, $117,650.37
Jeremy Donald, director of student services and school safety, $117,650.37
Luke Heitert, director of technology, $116,971.95
Courtney Meagher, Seckman Middle principal, $116,971.95
Jessica Meeks, Sherwood Elementary principal, $116,971.95
Patrick Schwalbe, Ridgewood Middle principal, $116,971.95*
James Ray, Lone Dell Elementary principal, $116,390
Curtis Sykes, Seckman High assistant principal, $115,354.80*
Robin Greene, director of professional development, $110,864.57
Angela Baker, Ridgewood Middle assistant principal, $108,690.75
Samantha Muehlenbeck, director of special services, $108,690.75
Zachary Brown, Fox High assistant principal, $105,543.07
Maria Bielik, director of data and assessment, $105,000*
JP Prezzavento, communications and instructional technology coordinator, $101,981.26
Chelsea Boyd, Seckman High assistant principal, $101,444.70
Hubert Leuthauser, Fox High assistant principal, $101,444.70
Heather Schwalbe, Fox High School assistant principal, $100,940
Kristine Campise-Baker, Meramec Heights Elementary assistant principal, $96,678.11
Ryan Shreve, Seckman Elementary assistant principal, $96,678.11
Ann Asher, Antonia Elementary
assistant principal, $93,771.79
Katie Collins, Hamrick Elementary assistant principal, $84,468.24
Kristin Darnell, Rockport Heights Elementary assistant principal, $84,468.24
Robyn Meagher, Sherwood Elementary assistant principal, $84,468.24
Kolin Peterson, Seckman Middle assistant principal, $84,468.24
Lisa Hazard, Simpson Elementary assistant principal, $82,812
Paul Tramel, Lone Dell Elementary assistant principal, $82,812
2022-23 professional contracts
John Stewart, chief financial officer, $150,096.75
Susan Belleville, CKC director of community outreach, $86,659.85
Dawne Trokey, director of business and financial services, $84,960.64
John Hallenberger, systems administrator/network engineer, $82,812
Gary Cross, director of transportation, $77,523
Gail Jones, director of food service, $77,523
Scott Barbagallo, director of maintenance, $77,137.31
Kimberly Schumacher, director of nursing, $77,523
Chris Kaiser, systems administrator/network engineer, $74,954.18
Susan Graham, administrative assistant to the superintendent, $66,950
Monica Montgomery, substitute and family medical leave specialist, $65,138
Sherry Caldwell, payroll manager, $63,317.27
Pam Graves, benefits and payroll specialist, $61,914
Jamie Willis, assistant to assistant superintendents, $60,412
Tabitha Schnurbusch, assistant to assistant superintendent/HR generalist, $57,786
James Donovan, assistant director of transportation, $56,217.53
Kaila Odenwald, assistant director of food service, $56,217.53
John Sieving, assistant director of maintenance, $55,937.84
Tiffany Allen, PAT/Building Blocks supervisor, $46,693.24
Trey Jimenez, Rickman manager, $41,200