Wake Board of Education extends superintendent's contract

Board Member Karen Carter said she asked for it to be over so it could be discussed separately.

Carter voted against the contract extension, which was approved 8-1.

Board Member Chris Heagarty said the board looked at how evaluations are done by other school boards.

“This is not something that was done on a whim,” Heagarty said. “This is something that all nine board members spent months working on.”

Board member Lindsay Mahaffey said the contract extension is useful to attract other high-level administrative personnel who would work directly under Moore.

During the public comment period, some speakers said they opposed the contract extension, after more than a year of frustration over how schooling has changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You get an F for failing our students,” Shelley Peele told the board.

Ashley Seshul questioned what metrics the board uses when it reviews the superintendent’s contract. She also noted dissatisfaction among employees striking, though none Tuesday night called for Moore’s removal as superintendent.

Seshul has spoken before the board several times this year about COVID-19 precautions, including what she said are excessive quarantines in the district keeping students out of school.

“Is it the board’s objective to become health care facilities or to improve education?”