The Columbia School Board will vote to approve incoming Superintendent Jeff Klein’s contract at its March 10 meeting, and the contract looks different than it has for previous superintendents.
Klein, who has been the district’s chief academic officer since July, will become the superintendent on July 1. His contract is for three years, or through June 30, 2028, and his annual salary for the 2025-26 school year will be $255,000, according to his contract.
One difference in the contract is the addition of a “separation” section, which states that if the board separates employment with the superintendent, the board will pay 12 months of the salary in severance. In prior contracts, and in the case of former Superintendent Brian Yearwood, the board was required to pay out the remainder of the contract.
If the superintendent is fired for cause, no severance is paid, board President Suzette Waters said. The contract outlines reasons for termination, including failure to comply with directives of the board, excessive or unreasonable absences from the performance of duties and immoral conduct.
Michelle Baumstark, a spokesperson for Columbia Public Schools, said this contract looks different because the district did not use the same template it had previously.
“That is what was taking so long, because we weren’t using that template — the template that Yearwood has is the template that superintendents across Missouri have,” Baumstark said. “Ours is different.”
The Missouri School Boards’ Association helped conduct the search for the superintendent and was involved in writing the contract. The final details of the contract were negotiated between the district and Klein’s attorney.
Linda Quinley, a senior director at the association, said that from the beginning, the board wanted to change the terms of the new contract.
“They don’t want to find themselves in a position similar to the one they were in earlier this year,” Quinley said. “They want to be fiscally responsible as much as they can with taxpayer dollars. I think that led to that change in the contract.”
Another difference is that if the board decides to extend the contract after the 2027-28 school year, it must do so by the October 2027 board meeting. Previously, the deadline to extend the contract was Feb. 15 of each school year.
Baumstark said this generally gives school boards more time to find qualified candidates to fill the position, and it gives candidates more time to find and apply for open positions.
Klein is succeeding Yearwood, who left the position late last year. As part of a separation agreement, Yearwood was to be paid $667,268.90 — basically the rest of his contract through June 2027 — sometime around the first of the year.
