A job advertisement on the Spotsylvania County Public Schools website caught the attention of school board members Rich Lieberman and Larry DiBella.
The division is advertising for an executive director of middle schools — a position that requires a master’s degree and five years of experience and lists a pay range up to $170,000 per year.
Superintendent Clint Mitchell said the position is open because of the departure of former Chief of Schools Kelly Guempel, who began serving as the superintendent of Montgomery County Schools in southwest Virginia on Feb. 1.
The executive director position is two steps below the one Guempel held, and the salary is downgraded as well. However, Lieberman said during a school board work session Monday night that he’s concerned because the division is also planning to hire an assistant superintendent to fill Guempel’s role in the 2026-27 school year, likely at a cost of more than $200,000 per year.
Lieberman’s motion to table the executive director position until further budget discussion failed, 3-2, as DiBella was the only one to support it.
Vice Chair Belen Rodas of the Chancellor District as well as Lorita Daniels and Carol Medawar of the Salem and Courtland districts, respectively, voted against it, saying the board needs to trust Mitchell to organize his staff.
Chair Megan Jackson of the Livingston District and Jennifer Craig Ford, who represents the Battlefield District, were absent and did not vote.
Lieberman noted that the school board’s approved fiscal year 2027 budget is already $5.8 million more than what County Administrator Ed Petrovich proposed that the board of supervisors provide. He reminded Mitchell and the school board that the shortfall persists despite a proposed 8-cent increase to the equalized real estate tax rate, which is subject to supervisor approval. If the fiscally-conservative board of supervisors votes on a lower advertised tax rate, the school’s shortfall could increase.
“We’re probably going to get more money from the state,” Lieberman said. “But we just don’t know yet.”
Mitchell responded to Lieberman and DiBella that questioning the job advertisement is not under the board’s purview because funding for the position is already in the current budget. Mitchell said he downgraded the position “for the sole purpose of trying to give more support to our schools.”
Currently, Allen Hicks serves as the executive director of secondary schools and leadership for the county, and he’s responsible for supervising all seven middle schools, five high schools, Virginia High School League compliance, adult education, students in the juvenile detention center, alternative education and more.
The middle school executive director would supervise the middle school principals. Mitchell noted that five of the principals are novices with three years of experience or less, and that he’ll be without an assistant superintendent because of the change.
“I don’t believe the board has the authority to be able to go ahead and prevent the superintendent from making a decision to reallocate a position,” Mitchell said. “If this was a new position being added to the budget, by all means this is a decision the board could choose to make … So, I’m a little bit baffled by the motion on the floor at the moment because right now with Dr. Guempel being out of the position, we had to make some significant changes … As superintendent, I have the right to be able to shift that.”
It’s long been a contention of some members of the community that the division pay scale is tilted toward high-paying jobs in central office rather than in the classroom and school buildings, but Rodas said she is concerned that the sentiment is impacting the board.
Rodas said she is “not loving the tone of sort of dismissing the work of our administrators that I’m feeling from this board.”
She added that the school division trained “an excellent, outstanding generation of central office administrators” who are now working for other divisions where they’re more appreciated.
“We lost almost a whole generation of them from this building, and they’re doing magnificent work,” Rodas said … “To have this sort of tone that that’s not work that matters is discouraging to me.”
Mitchell said Spotsylvania is a large school division but thinks small, noting that nearby Stafford County employs directors as well as a chief of staff and chief of schools.
Lieberman and DiBella said they’re not dismissing the executive director of middle schools position entirely, but the two school board members believe it deserves a closer look.
DiBella said it wouldn’t hurt to table the position for six to eight weeks and have additional discussion about it, but Rodas said doing so would be detrimental to the staff members who are picking up the slack from Guempel’s departure. Rodas and others in support of the position believe school board members shouldn’t micromanage Mitchell and his staff.
Lieberman saw where the vote was headed, stating: “I can count to three,” but he maintained his stance.
“If we have to cut $5.8 million, this board is going to have to set our priorities,” he said. “And that needs to be something that we discuss.”
