Maryland school district OKs $305K contract for outgoing Kansas City superintendent
Outgoing Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent Mark Bedell has officially been appointed to lead a Maryland district, where he will serve under a four-year contract with a $305,000 annual salary, plus benefits.
The Anne Arundel County Public Schools board of education on Friday afternoon unanimously selected Bedell as its next superintendent, approving his contract that offers $23,000 more per year than he earns in Kansas City, plus several benefits.
“I am the oldest out of eight. I was born to a 16-year-old. And I’m the only one out of the eight of us to make it past the ninth grade in my family,” Bedell told reporters after the meeting Friday. “I have experienced every bit of trauma, neglect, that one can go through. And the thing that I often try to share with all of our students is simple: Education is the pathway to economic prosperity.
“If we do education right, it doesn’t matter how you show up and where you come from, you can overcome.”
Bedell announced last week that he would resign from Kansas City Public Schools, effective Aug. 5, to move to the Maryland district, based in Annapolis, for professional and personal reasons. Bedell previously lived in Anne Arundel County and served as an assistant superintendent for Baltimore County Public Schools.
The Anne Arundel County district has roughly 83,000 students enrolled, compared to the Kansas City district’s 14,000.
A native of Rochester, New York, Bedell had never led a school district until he was hired in Kansas City. After six years at KCPS, Bedell is the district’s longest-serving superintendent in more than five decades.
The Kansas City school board last year approved a new three-year contract for Bedell, with a $282,000 salary plus benefits. When he was hired in 2016, Bedell earned $225,000 under his first contract.
At a press conference last week, Kansas City school board President Nate Hogan said that the board would have happily extended Bedell’s contract another three years if he had wished to stay.
Deputy Superintendent Jennifer Collier will serve as interim superintendent for the coming school year.
Bedell has been credited with helping lead the district to finally attain full state accreditation in January, for the first time in more than two decades. During Bedell’s tenure, KCPS has improved student academic achievement and graduation rates to meet state standards. Missouri state school board members at the time also cited Bedell’s steady guidance among their reasons for granting the district full accreditation.
The district had regained provisional accreditation from the state in 2014.
In Maryland, Bedell will replace George Arlotto, who has served as superintendent in Anne Arundel County since 2014. Under Arlotto’s last four-year contract, approved in 2018, he earned an annual $269,000 salary, plus benefits.
After the Anne Arundel County school board voted on Friday, board President Joanna Bache Tobin said that members are “delighted and thrilled to be welcoming Dr. Bedell to this county as our next superintendent of schools.”
“As you saw by the unanimity of the vote, this is something that the entire board is absolutely delighted about and none of us could be happier,” she said.
Bedell last week said that accepting the new position was a way to build on his resume and diversify his professional experience. He also said that moving back to Maryland was a personal decision, allowing him to be closer to his daughter’s university, as well as other family who live in his hometown of Rochester.
“So it’s not about the contract and it’s not about the money,” he said last week. “It’s not about the board. It really is about: It’s time.”
This story was originally published June 17, 2022 at 3:31 PM.
