The Central Bucks School District will pay it’s former superintendent $712,000 following a vote by the school board to buy out his contract. The Republican majority board was ousted earlier this month. A new board will take over in a few weeks. The vote left many parents and tax payers outraged. NBC10’s Deanna Durante explains.
At a packed meeting of the Central Bucks School Board on Tuesday night, parents and school board members clashed over controversial decisions that would see a transgender students banned from competing on teams that followed their gender identity as well as a six-figure payout for an outgoing superintendent.
The disputed moves come as the lame duck school board is set for a refresh after the Republican-led board saw a Democratic sweep in recent elections, as all five open seats went to progressive candidates.
Tuesday was the last meeting of the Republican-led board before it would be turned over to progressives and members were scheduled to vote on two controversial agenda items -- a massive severance package for outgoing Superintendent Abram Lucabaugh and a vote on a policy that would ban transgender athletes from being on sports teams aligned with their gender identities.
Parents flooded the Central Bucks School Board meeting, held at Central Bucks West High School in Doylestown, with some even lining up with signs outside of the high school more than an hour before the meeting began.
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At the outset of the meeting, Democrats on the board were greeted with a standing ovation, following the recent elections that flipped the board to Democrat control.
And most of those in attendance seemed there to comment on Lucabaugh's separation agreement, totaling more than $700,000.
"I was tempted to withhold my school tax payment because I know that payout is not a good use of my funds," one parent told the board.
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Lucabaugh resigned on Monday and did not show up to Tuesday's meeting.
Some also noted Lucabaugh -- who has been seen as an ally of the outgoing conservative board -- had already received a 40-percent pay raise in July.
At times, the meeting grew contentious -- in one instance, a woman barked back at the gathered crowd as she attempted to address the board.
"You people in this room that are interrupting my use of First Amendment rights, you’re the problem in this community," she told the audience.
In the end -- with decisions met with a round of jeers -- the board voted to give Lucabaugh the six-figure payout and voted in favor of the new policy for transgender athletes.
However, the new board will take over in a December and some decisions could be reversed.
Until then, the district is currently conducting a search for a new superintendent.
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