ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The Allentown School Board approved a new four-year $250,000 salary contract for Carol Birks Thursday, despite criticism over a lack of transparency. The vote was 7 to 2, with Directors Lisa Conover and Phoebe Harris voting no.
- The Allentown School Board approved a new four-year $250,000 salary contract for Carol Birks
- There was criticism over a lack of transparency
- Birks is the first Black female superintendent to run the Allentown School District
The meeting room was crowded with residents there to voice their concerns about how the board was going about hiring Birks, or to show their support for her retention.
Former board member Robert Smith said he thought the salary was too high and expressed frustration about the frequent turnover in the superintendent position.
"We're the ones who get stuck with the pay-bills when everybody leaves town," he said. "All the other superintendents, where are they now? They're not living here. In the last 30 years, I've been living here and some people in this room have been living here and in the next 30 years, we'll be living here. But where will be your consultants and your solicitors and your superintendents?"
Birks is the first Black female superintendent to run the Allentown School District. She is the sixth superintendent since 2010.
Victor Martinez owns Spanish radio station La Mega and is a member of the newly-formed Allentown Latino Education Coalition, which raised concerns about the hiring. He said the coalition's objection was not about Birks or her qualifications, but about a lack of inclusion for members of the Latino community. Latino students make up more than 70% percent of the student population.
The coalition met with Board President Audrey Mathison and Vice President Nancy Wilt at the end of January to discuss how members could be involved in the search for a new superintendent, but that information was not shared with other board members.
"Here you have a group of parents and Latino leaders wanting to be part of the process, wanting to talk to you about it," Martinez said. "And you guys never heard or knew about it. It was done in secrecy."
Conover made a motion to table the vote, saying she wanted there to be a more transparent and inclusive process. It failed 7-2, with Harris the only other no-vote.
Pas Simpson, a parent in the school district, said waiting to hire Birks or someone else would put students behind years. He spoke passionately for the board to move ahead with hiring Birks.
"The most important thing needs to be our babies," he said. "The students who are in the school district currently. Fix that, stand by that, and then we can deal with other things."
The new contract runs through 2027. It provides for annual raises based on performance every July, which cannot exceed 4%. Her salary would be prorated for the remainder of this year.
Mathison said the pay rate was competitive given the complexity of the job required in the Allentown School District and also compared to other school districts. She said Birks still would not be among the 10 highest-paid superintendents paid in Pennsylvania.
Mathison said despite the community comments, the board did nothing wrong.
"She (Birks) told us from the beginning, that night that she was going to be a candidate for the permanent position," Mathison said. "At that time, I assumed we would still be going out for a search. Over time, the board's mind changed, minus the couple of people who spoke because they could not for whatever reason attend the seminar that we had.
"But the board's mind changed because of what we saw, I can give you a list, and will at some point, because of the accomplishments that this woman has put through in just those few months where she was an acting superintendent."
In a prepared statement, Birks said she was honored to serve the Allentown community.
"I am humbled and deeply grateful for the trust of the School Board of Directors, and I am thrilled to be named the superintendent of this amazing and culturally diverse community," she said. “I look forward to continuing to partner with staff, students, families, and the [school board] to create the conditions where everyone feels safe, valued, empowered, and loved.”
Birks stepped into the interim superintendent role at the end of this past October when the board fired former Superintendent John Stanford in an emotional meeting. He was less than a year into a five-year contract. He earned $230,000 a year in the role, making him the highest-paid chief of schools in the district’s history until now.
Before coming to Allentown, Birks served as a consultant with Booker T. Washington Academy in February 2022, a tuition-free charter school for grades K-8 in New Haven and Hamden. She was made regional superintendent in July. Her initial contract with ASD called for her to work part-time until mid-December while she wrapped up her employment with the charter school and relocated to the area, but her employment with them ended around Thanksgiving.
Birks earned $215,000 when she served as the superintendent of the Chester Upland School District in Delaware County in 2020, which was under receivership. She was paid $235,000 to head the New Haven Public Schools in 2018, but her contract was bought out after a year and a half on the job.
Many Allentown residents have criticized the board for a lack of transparency and community input in hiring Birks on a permanent basis. At least two board members, Harris and Conover, have opposed the process taken by the board leadership, Mathison and Wilt, which did not include a new search or community town halls.
Allentown School District Solicitor Jeffrey Sultanik said the district's national consultant, Micah Ali, advised that the board forgo a search at a Feb. 25 retreat. Sultanik said there’s currently a lack of qualified applicants.
