- April 25, 2024
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The Volusia County School Board unanimously approved an employment agreement with its new interim superintendent Rachel Hazel at its meeting on Tuesday, April 26.
Hazel, who began her career with VCS in 1996 as a clerk, was previously the director of Human Resources, and the agreement states that, as an at-will employee, she will return to that position when the School Board hires a new superintendent. The School Board voted to terminate past Superintendent Scott Fritz without cause during its meeting on April 12, and Hazel was appointed to serve in the interim that same night. Fritz's payout amounts to $186,843.92, per his contract.
The employment agreement additionally outlines that Hazel's annual salary while she holds the position will be $205,000, or $803.92 a day.
After Hazel's agreement was approved, and during the board member's final remarks for the meeting, School Board member Anita Burnette acknowledged that their last meeting "was very emotional for all of us." She then asked School Board Attorney Ted Doran if there were reasons that the board should have considered a termination with cause for Fritz, but Doran said there were none and that the issue legally couldn't be brought back, as the board had already voted to fire him.
"You would have to rehire him, he would have to agree to be rehired, then you would have to terminate him again," Doran said. "Obviously, none of that is going to occur."
Burnette said she felt it was her duty as a representative of the voters to bring that back before the board because the payout was so substantial.
School Board member Jamie Haynes explained that a large portion of the payout was a result of Fritz's sick and annual leave, and he would have been entitled to it regardless of when he was terminated. The payout also included 20-weeks pay, per state law.
"And actually, as we went along, he would have continued to accrue additional days and that payment piece would have gone up," said Haynes, who made the original motion to terminate Fritz. "... I don't like a misperception or people stating that we just handed him a large sum of money."
One member of the public spoke in regards to Hazel's employment agreement. Kim Short, a parent who runs the Facebook group, Volusia County School Forum, and candidate to represent District 3 on the School Board, said she has sat through the firing of the past three superintendents since she began attending School Board meetings n 2012. While she approved of Hazel's appointment, she urged the board to tread carefully and include the community in the selection of a new superintendent.
"Regardless of what the result is, getting a community behind somebody who's going to be your new leader is critical to their success and to all of us feeling like we can be a cohesive unit to moving forward," Short said. "I don't think that there's anything more important to the success of this district than what we do next as far as leadership goes."
