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Kishimoto Contract Made Public

Generous Number Of Days Off Part Of Three-Year Deal

By Vanessa de la Torre

July 02, 2011

On the day Christina Kishimoto began as the city's next superintendent, the school system released a copy of her three-year contract, which includes at least 58 potential days off each year.

The agreement appears to put her first-year base salary at $215,000 rather than the $205,000 that board of education Chairman David MacDonald initially cited on Wednesday, the day the contract was signed.

According to the contract, "the annual base salary of the superintendent shall be the sum of" $205,000 and "an additional amount of $10,000" to be used toward retirement.

The second and third years of the agreement call for base salaries of $231,000 and $238,000, respectively, but it's unclear whether the $10,000 for retirement is included in those amounts.

When asked to clarify Kishimoto's salary on Friday, MacDonald, who negotiated the contract, said, "I'm not going to comment on the language right now. ... I don't have the contract in front of me so I'd rather not comment."

He referred questions to Jill Cutler Hodgman, a legal adviser to the board, who could not be reached.

Kishimoto, 42, who had been an assistant superintendent under retiring Superintendent Steven Adamowski, can earn up to an extra $30,000 annually as a performance bonus if she meets board targets on student achievement and "organizational goals."

In addition, the board's first formal evaluation of Kishimoto as superintendent appears to arrive fairly soon after the start of classes in the coming school year. According to the contract, the board "shall evaluate the superintendent prior to the expiration of each [contract] year ... no later than September 30."

Annual fringe benefits include 24 sick days, 24 vacation days and 10 personal days. Plus, Kishimoto "shall have the holidays on which board offices are closed," the agreement stated.

Kishimoto also gets a monthly $400 car allowance for the business use of her personal vehicle. Mayor Pedro Segarra had opposed that provision in a letter to MacDonald this week.

On Friday, Kishimoto addressed the Hartford schools community in a letter that briefly explained three of her goals for the second phase of the city's education reform. The first is the "Third Grade Promise," which expects students who enter a Hartford public school in kindergarten to be able to read at grade level if they remain at that school through third grade.

The second is creating a "middle school design" that better prepares students for high school, and the third centers on college readiness.