Two Athens admins to get raises

By Kevin O’Brien

Two years after agreeing to accept salary reductions in order to help the Athens School District close its budget deficit, two of the three administrators are now making at or above what they were making during the 2023-2024 school year, according to contracts recently released by the district.

The Athens School Board approved the contracts after meeting in closed session Jan. 27, but they were not released until recently in response to an open records request submitted by the Record-Review the day after the meeting. Under state law, the administrators were given an opportunity to “augment the record” with written comments.

None of the administrators chose to add anything to the record, but the process did delay the release of the records by about two months because written notices of the records requests were delivered using certified mail. The administrators were allowed five business days to respond to the request.

The following salary data was revealed in the contracts:

■ Superintendent Andrea Sheridan, who took a nearly $1,500 pay cut going into the 2023-2024 school year, is now making $127,296 as part of a contract that covers this school year and 20252026. This represents an increase of $1,656 over her salary in 20222023, and is $3,100 more than what she was making in 20232024.

■ Athens Elementary principal Joy Redmann will essentially be making the same amount of money next school year as she was in 2022-2023 before she agreed to take a $4,370 pay cut in exchange for working 10 fewer days in 20232024. In July, her salary will go back up to $96,277, and she will still be working 215 days, or five fewer than she was prior to accepting the pay cut.

■ Athens Middle/High principal Juli Gaureke-Peter will still be making $5,555 less than what she was making in 2022-2023, when her salary was $96,269 for 260 days. For the third school year in a row, she will be making $90,714 for 245 days of work.

■ Robin Hanson will be making $47,054 next year as the half-time principal of Maple Grove Charter School, plus $41,727 as a half-time special education teacher at the school, for a total salary of $88,781. She did not take a pay cut in the 2023-2024 school year.

As part of the new contracts approved by the school board in January, five additional workdays were added to Redmann’s contract, which accounts for the pay increase, Sheridan said. Likewise, the the number of workdays remained the same for both Gauerke-Peter and Hanson, so their salaries were kept the same.

Gauerke-Peter will be working 30 more days next school year than Redmann, but will still make $5,563 less than Redmann.

When asked why Redmann would earn more than Gauerke-Peter even though their jobs appear to be similar, Sheridan said “there are different responsibilities at the middle and high school, and therefore the contract days are differentiated based upon operational needs.”

Sheridan noted that five days were added Redmann’s contract, while Gaureke-Peter’s hours stayed the same.

“The additional five workdays added to Joy Redmann’s contract provide her the time to plan for the next school year, including new curriculum implementation, budget allocation, and staff development,” Sheridan wrote in an email. “A significant amount of hiring also occurs during the summer months, and principals are responsible for recruiting, interviewing, and onboarding new teachers and staff.”

Editor’s note: Reporter Casey Krautkramer assisted with this article.

Andrea Sheridan