Michigan administrator defends severance arrangements made in Kansas City

The chancellor of Michigan's new statewide district for failing schools is defending his decision to offer sweetened severance pay to three former administrators in the Kansas City (Mo.) district who followed him to Detroit. John Covington abruptly resigned as Kansas City superintendent in August 2011 to become chancellor of Michigan's new Education Achievement Authority. Three months later, he hired Rebecca Lee-Gwin, Mary Esselman and MiUndrae Prince, who left Kansas City to become administrators with the EAA in Detroit. Covington says he did nothing wrong in rewriting the contracts and that the changes — which he contends were made a year before he left — were designed to help recruit and retain top administrators.

Earlier... From The Kansas City Star: Nearly four months before his surprise resignation, former Kansas City (Mo.) Superintendent John Covington rewrote his top administrators’ contracts to sweeten their severance pay if any were to leave the district. Three administrators who later resigned to follow Covington to the newly created statewide recovery school district in Michigan tried to collect the higher severance. Kansas City, however, has voided the revised contracts and denied their payouts.