‘Bad optics’: Escambia School Board reverses course on 19% raise idea for superintendent

Pensacola News Journal | By Mary Lett | May 21, 2025

A proposal to raise the Escambia Public Schools superintendent’s salary by about 19 percent has been placed on the backburner after severe pushback from the community after it was proposed just one week ago.

The matter was not brought before the Escambia School Board at its monthly meeting on Tuesday. At the May 15 workshop, board member Paul Fetsko suggested Supt. Keith Leonard’s salary be increased to at least $205,000 annually.

The raise would make Leonard’s salary comparable with what elected superintendents in other similar-sized school districts earn, Fetsko argued. It would also put Leonard’s salary in line with what the state recommends for the elected position, Fetsko said.

Leonard, who was appointed and not elected, was named interim superintendent in May 2023 following the termination of Tim Smith, the district’s first appointed superintendent. In January 2024, school board members unanimously voted to remove the interim title.

According to his employment contract dated Feb. 20, 2024, Leonard’s base salary was $172,250 with bonuses and other provisions.

During Tuesday’s meeting’s public forum, Darzell Warren, president of the Escambia Education Association, told board members she recognized the superintendent deserves a pay raise.

“I don’t think anyone in this district would disagree with that. What your employees are asking is, ‘Why so much?” Warren said. “I understand that that was the state recommendation, but the law also said (teachers) needed to get to $47,500, which we could not do overnight. It was a gradual climb for us, but we finally got there. You have a lot of employees who are working two, sometimes three jobs to make ends meet.”

Warren said teachers constantly have been told it’s going to be difficult this year because of declining enrollment, which may mean job losses for some employees and possibly larger class sizes.

“What I would like for this board to consider as we prepare to go the table to negotiate salaries, that the board will remember that your employees are looking for you to take care of them also,” Warren said.

Fetsko said he was naïve to expect there not to be some backlash on his proposal.

“I definitely am concerned for teacher salaries,” he said, adding he and his wife were teachers and that his son and daughter-in-law work for the school district.

Fetsko said despite some district employees with a certain number of years received 3% and 4% pay raises, he still supported increasing the superintendent’s pay.

“Maybe we do increase gradually the superintendent’s salary until we get to the point where it meets that state recommendation. Again, it will cause some people who feel less unimportant or ignored or whatever. I would give you the money this very second Mr. Superintendent, because I think you’re doing a dang good job. You have a responsibility that others could not even imagine.”

Fetsko said in the near future – maybe even the next workshop − the matter would be discussed further and he would like the board to look at how other districts have addressed additional funding for teacher salaries.

“At some point, have a very open discussion here to say, do we need to move forward with similar initiatives? And if so, this maybe the time to do it because of the way the election cycle works,” he added.

Fesko pushed against going to an appointed superintendent in the first place and has since consistently pushed to have a referendum seeking to return to an elected superintendent.

The Escambia County School Board voted 3-2 in February to approve a resolution to put a referendum on the August 2026 midterm primary election giving voters the option of choosing to elect or appoint the Escambia County Schools superintendent. If the referendum passes in 2026, Escambia County residents will elect a superintendent during the November 2028 general election.

Harrell, who supported increasing Leonard’s salary at the workshop last week, again noted the financial constraints the district faces.

“A $50,000 raise is not in the cards at this time. I say that and this is a personal opinion, that’s a board decision. It’s bad optics for our community. It’s bad optics for this board, in my opinion and it’s one that sets a precedent that we don’t need to set at this time,” he said.

“At one time, we had Mr. (Terry) St. Cyr tell us about the financial difficulty that we’re facing. In the next breath, we hear about a raise. If you looked at social media, it was brutal on this issue.”

Each December – if Leonard’s employment evaluation is rated effective or highly effective – he is entitled to the same raise (about 3%) as other administrators.

Harrell said he supports incremental pay raises to bring Leonard in line with the state recommendation, but he also wanted other district employees to receive increases.

Board member Kevin Adams said he felt Leonard faced pay compression – in that his salary was not increased when he moved from interim superintendent to the permanent position.

“When we made you permanent, we never adjusted to the base salary. So, he’s kind of got a little compression problem over there − like the teachers had,” Adams said.

“I believe we can look at performance standards and see if we can come up with something over the next year or two, to get him up to a little bit back with other superintendents. Basically, I believe that’s what happened, he got caught down at that lower level as an interim. Then when we made him a permanent superintendent, no adjustment was made.”