In a moment of cross-faction cooperation, the Douglas County school board voted overwhelmingly Tuesday night to approve a contract for its new superintendent.

Before voting 5-1 to accept the contract, the board made two changes to the proposed contract for Erin Kane, its choice to take the reins of Colorado’s third-largest school district. One was a minor numbering tweak, and the other shortened Kane’s term from four years to three. Because the contract was changed, it will now go back to Kane for approval.

Douglas County school board selects next superintendent in 4-3 vote

The change to Kane’s term was advocated for by board member Elizabeth Hanson, one of the longer-serving members who’s been critical of the board’s leaders. She said she wanted to give the board the ability to switch superintendents if Kane didn’t successfully implement a competitive compensation package and because of concerns that a new board majority, elected at some point in the next four years, would want to oust Kane.

Hanson reasoned that firing Kane before her contract expired would open the district up to severance costs. Corey Wise, the district’s previous superintendent, signed a three-year contract last May. After he was unilaterally fired without cause by a 4-3 vote on Feb. 4, the district must now pay him a year’s salary – nearly $250,000.

Hanson said she met with Kane last week and was excited and optimistic about the future.

Board president Mike Peterson was hesitant to support Hanson’s proposal, but vice president Christy Williams and secretary Becky Myers both said they would accept the change if it meant a unanimous vote. Kaylee Winegar, the board’s treasurer, voted against accepting that change, saying she wanted a four-year term. Susan Meek, one of the longer-serving members, also opposed it because she wanted a two-year term.

Attorney suing Douglas County school board asks judge to consider if district’s lawyers violated ethics rules

Meek noted that the district is facing a lawsuit accusing its four board leaders of breaking the law and improperly firing Wise. That suit, among other things, seeks to have Wise reinstated and his termination declared null and void. Meek said she was concerned that the district would be on the hook for two superintendents at some point, should that suit be successful.

Meek ultimately was the only no vote against approving the contract. Fellow veteran member David Ray boycotted the meeting.

Ray had previously called for a unanimous vote in favor of the board’s other finalist, district administrator Danny Winsor, as a show of unity. After that failed, he, along with Hanson and Meek, voted against advancing Kane as the superintendent-elect.

Douglas County school board member blasts ‘unethical’ board actions, won’t attend contract meeting

Kane was the district’s interim superintendent from 2016 to 2018. A consultant for the first half of her professional career, she helped launch a district charter school in 2004 and has led it since 2009, except for the two years she was in charge of the district. 

Assuming she accepts the changes, Kane will take over a district led by a divided school board and facing at least one lawsuit over how its leaders ousted her predecessor. Wise has also indicated he will sue his former employer.

For that work, Kane will receive a $250,000 annual salary, $2,500 more than Wise. In another change from Wise’s contract, she will be held to a more detailed evaluation process. During the process of firing Wise, the board’s three longer-serving members criticized their four leaders for not conducting any performance reviews or attempting to remediate any of his apparent deficiencies.

Douglas County school board expected to pick superintendent finalist Tuesday

Under Kane’s contract, the board will evaluate her in writing every year, as they did Wise. But it will also describe any deficiencies in writing, and the superintendent will appear before the board each October “to conduct the formative part of the evaluation and a meeting in March to conduct the summative evaluation.”

Kane can be removed with or without cause by the board or by resigning. If she, like Wise, is voted out without cause, she will receive a year’s salary.

Correction: The charter school that Erin Kane helped found was established in 2004. A previous version of this story misstated the year the school was founded.