BY CHRIS ANDERSON

The Pike County Board of Education issued a favorable review of District Superintendent Roger Wagner this week, but one member gave a scathing review of the district head.

At a special meeting of the board on Thursday, board members voted to accept the annual evaluation of Wagner, in which the board gave Wagner a rating of 3.17 out of a possible 4.0 score.

As compensation for the favorable review, the board approved giving Wagner five additional vacation days in the coming year.

Board Chairman Earl Thacker said that during a closed session at the meeting in which board members discussed the evaluation, the board discussed the district’s dire financial situation. In regard to that financial hardships, the board chose not to give Wagner a monetary raise. 

“We couldn’t do it,” Thacker said, referencing possible cuts to staff and services which may need to be made in the future.

Wagner added that he did not request additional monetary compensation in regard to the evaluation results.

Although Wagner scored high in the evaluation, at least one board member did not return a favorable review of the superintendent, according to an examination of evaluation documents by the News-Express.

According to the tabulation sheet on which the board’s evaluation scores were totaled, four of the board members gave mostly “excellent” (3) and “outstanding” (4) reviews of Wagner’s performance in areas such as leadership, policy and governance, management, planning and other areas.

One board member, however, rated Wagner as “needs improvement” in all areas. The names of the board members which gave the scores were not listed on the documentation and Thacker said no documents exist which indicate how each board member voted.

When asked for copies of board evaluation documentation which showed the scores given by the board members, Wagner said those documents could not be provided. He added that he does not receive a copy of the evaluation tabulation form.