Lee’s Summit school officials are negotiating an exit for superintendent

Lee’s Summit’s superintendent of schools may be on his way out.

District officials said they were “negotiating a leadership transition” as Superintendent David McGehee was put on paid administrative leave beginning Thursday night.

On Friday, McGehee declined to comment.

McGehee, the state’s highest-paid public school superintendent, signed a new contract with the Lee’s Summit School District on May 3. The new contract calls for him to make a base salary of $304,300 for the 2016-2017 school year, plus $60,857 in deferred compensation for forgoing other employment opportunities. It’s effective July 1.

The contract agreement was reached after months of controversy that included a dispute between McGehee and board member Bill Baird, who was opposed to a contract with McGehee and called for him to resign.

Baird accused McGehee of a conflict of interest because the superintendent’s girlfriend is Shellie Guin, the principal at one of the district’s primary law firms.

Guin said that to avoid violating Missouri Bar rules, she had other attorneys at her firm do work that dealt with McGehee directly.

Baird told The Star he thought it would be best if McGehee and the district parted ways.

“We’re negotiating right now, and all options are on the table,” Baird said. “We need new leadership.”

Until Thursday, however, the majority of the board had supported McGehee, including board president Terri Harmon.

But Thursday afternoon, Harmon announced she was stepping down as president but would remain on the school board. In addition, the Guin Mundorf law firm withdrew from doing business with the district.

Harmon would not comment on why she gave up the presidency. But in a statement Thursday, she said she believed stepping aside immediately was in the best interest of the district and “would give the seven-member board the opportunity to heal and return to a professional and positive climate.”

However, emails obtained from the district through a freedom of information request revealed that Baird had questioned actions by Harmon involving McGehee’s contract.

According to the emails dated May 9, Baird threatened to make the actions public if Harmon and McGehee did not resign. He also called for the district to terminate services with Bryan Cave and Guin Mundorf law firms.

The emails show that Harmon made a change to McGehee’s new contract after it had been approved by the board. On the advice of an attorney for the district, she did not take the change back to the board for its approval.

Harmon said Friday she moved about $12,000 from the employee salary line to the deferred compensation line in the contract but did not change the base salary bottom line.

She said the move would reduce the amount of money the district would pay into the public retirement plan. And McGehee would not pay tax on the deferred compensation.

Harmon said the change was “minor.”

Baird said in an email he sent to each of the school board members that the contract changes needed board approval.

“The board needs to make it clear that this behavior is not acceptable from our board president and attorney,” Baird said.

At Thursday evening’s school board meeting, dozens of citizens rallied to protest the way the board had handled McGehee’s contract and pay raise.

This story was originally published May 20, 2016 at 6:55 PM with the headline "Lee’s Summit school officials are negotiating an exit for superintendent."