- January 16, 2025
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Superintendent Carmen Balgobin will continue at the helm of Volusia County Schools.
On Tuesday, Dec. 10, the Volusia County School Board approved a four-year contract with Balgobin with a 4-1 vote. Balgobin has led the district since she was hired in 2022, following the board's firing of its last superintendent. As part of her contract, Balgobin's base salary will also increase by 8.7% to $280,000. The contract also includes a medical stipend of $500 a month and the use of a district car — which was included in her previous contract, but the new contract now gives her the ability to park it at her home, rather than keep it at district school.
"I think that what she's asking for is fair," School Board member Ruben Colon said. "As we know, nothing is getting cheaper. Everything is getting more expensive, and the truth is we get to lock her in for four years at that amount of money."
Describing himself as a "numbers person," Colon said that Balgobin's salary is less than what other districts of comparable size around the country pay for their superintendents. Letting her use a district vehicle, and park it at her home, is cheaper than paying for mileage, he added.
"The evaluations speak for themselves," he said. "The numbers, the market, all of that supports that this is probably an underfunded contract, but I think Dr. Balgobin also has sensitivity for the challenges our district has faced."
School Board member Donna Brosemer was the lone vote against approving the contract. As a recently sworn-in board member, she wanted more time to review the negotiations in the new contract as the current contract doesn't expire until March 2025.
"We still have a contract for three more months and we have the opportunity to discuss what to do with it as a full board, allowing two new board members to get better seated, to have the opportunity to work more with Dr Balgobin and learn the district a little bit better — get ourselves a little bit better situated," Brosemer said.
The fact that Balgobin's evaluation — which was not posted along with the agenda item — is linked to the district's strategic plan, Brosemer added, is one factor she would look to adjust. She felt that the board should write the strategic plan, not staff.
"I would think that we could use the next few months to come up with with metrics that are appropriate for evaluation, and then decide on extending the contract under the existing term," Brosemer said.
Several people attended the School Board meeting to speak in favor of the board approving Balgobin's contract.
Former School Board member Ida Wright, who worked with Balgobin when she was interim superintendent in 2020 and 2021, said stability is needed at the district.
"I think you have a person at the helm who could see us through any challenges we should face moving forward and take us to the next level, looking at our record and looking at where we were over the last three years, and then looking at our school grade this year, we are very close to becoming an A district again," Wright said.
A group of principals also attended the meeting to support the approval of Balgobin's contract, among them being Shannon Hay, of Ormond Beach Elementary, and Leigh Prokop, of Beachside Elementary, who had to leave prior to the group speaking before the board.
Manatee Cove Elementary principal Alicia Douglas said Balgobin supports them in "every way possible," including in teacher recruitment and retention.
"We deeply appreciate her caring spirit, guidance and ongoing support, both personally and professionally," Douglas said. "We believe her consistency, wisdom and leadership are all essential for our continued success
But there were some concerns regarding Balgobin's raise. One speaker, Allison Root, mentioned the displacing of some 284 teachers earlier this year because of budget shortfalls.
"But now we have enough to allocate to this," Root said. "I mean, you add all of these benefit packages up, and you're looking at teacher salaries right there. So I'm not saying that she doesn't deserve it. What I'm saying is, can we afford it?"
Port Orange resident and former School Board candidate Kim Short said she was disappointed in the amount of speakers throughout the night who felt Balgobin would be fired. (The board has fired its last three superintendents since 2015.)
While there has been a lot of turnover in the district, Short said she didn't think the board was setting a good precedent in approving the contract and believed the right thing to do was wait.
"I don't like that we have a review that wasn't put out there for the public to be able to see," Short said. "I feel like that wasn't transparent."
School Board member Jamie Haynes said the current contract had too many issues to push its approval — including insurance clauses that were left off and a requirement for her to return her car to a school lot no matter the circumstances.
She argued that waiting to approve her contract in March would not be prudent, because if the board decides to terminate her contract, it would not give them enough time to find a new superintendent.
"We need to move forward on this," Haynes said. "We need to vote on this and she needs to know that she is continued, with the vision and the mission that we have, and continue the work she's doing, and our staff needs to know that we have stability here in Volusia County."
Board member Krista Goodrich, who along with Brosemer was recently sworn in, said she spent the last several months researching the superintendent and the job she's done for the district and didn't see a reason to wait to approve the contract.
"As we heard from the community, our business leaders, our leaders in our schools, community leaders — we have a rock star amongst us," Goodrich said. "And when you have a rock star ... if we have a chance to keep her at what is a more-than-reasonable contract and keep her now, we don't have to wait until March."
