Charter School Board approves new contract for Stephenson
Cape Coral Charter School superintendent Nelson Stephenson will have a new contract to continue leading the city’s four charter school system into the future.
The Charter School Governing Board unanimously approved a new two-year contract for the superintendent during Tuesday’s regular monthly board meeting at City Hall. With a few changes from the previous contract, Stephenson’s agreement runs through June 2019.
The governing board preferred the two-year contract instead of a three-year deal to provide consistency going forward.
He receives a salary increase to $125,000 annually in the contract with two evaluations each year during the contract period. Benefits are the same as those provided city employees, to include dental and vision coverage. He also receives a cell phone stipend of $80 per month.
After a round of discussion, board member Sam Fisher relayed to the panel that he did extensive research with students and staff at all four schools in order to get a sense of Stephenson’s leadership.
“I never got one thought that Nelson should not be back,” said Fisher. “There was no hesitation, it was a totally positive feeling. I also did not get a sense that we are going in the wrong direction.”
Fisher’s report seemed to convince fellow board members, if any needed convincing, before the unanimous vote to approve the contract was taken.
Other business attended by the board included a suggestion to call a special public workshop meeting to go over the school system’s internal audit in order to be better informed before the scheduled joint board meeting with City Council on Feb. 27. The board suggested Stephenson and City Auditor Margaret Krym attend the public meeting, tentatively to be held in the afternoon of Feb. 23 in the high school library. The meeting will be advertised in advance.
Stephenson also led a discussion of the school strategic plan with most of the session focusing on the transportation department. The panel focused on transportation route efficiency and maintenance of buses becoming more expensive as the fleet ages. All buses remain under warranty but some warranties expire as soon as April.
Staff checked with other charter school systems and found that most routes extend two to five miles from the school. Cape Coral’s bus routes make some runs in the northern sections of the city to cover as much as 15 miles. Buses on those routes pick up students at designated “depot stops” to limit the number of stops the bus has to make on the route. Parents are responsible for transporting their children to those depot stops up to seven miles from their homes, cutting the distance the buses have to travel.
The Pembroke Pines Charter School System, upon which the Cape Charter Schools are patterned, receives a subsidy from the state of $1.3 million. Its transportation costs run $2.1 million, leaving actual costs of $800,000 per year.
Stephenson agreed with the governing board to do research to obtain any state subsidy money available in the future and report back at the next board meeting on March 14.