Three Springfield school board members who voted against extending the contract of Superintendent Grenita Lathan said they still believe she has the skills, knowledge and experience to do the job.
In explaining the vote, members Maryam Mohammadkhani, Kelly Byrne and Steve Makoski said they had questions about the longstanding practice of giving superintendents a rolling, three-year contract.
They also expressed interest in having more time to evaluate her progress before extending employment beyond the 2025-26 year.
Byrne and Makoski singled out ongoing concerns about student achievement and behavior as factors in their decision. Mohammadkhani has talked about those issues in board meetings but did not explicitly identify them Thursday as reasons for her vote.
“I’d like to see some more focus on that, the discipline and the academic achievement of our students because it is our job, it is what we are supposed to be doing,” Makoski said Thursday, in an interview with the News-Leader.