The Central Bucks board gave its superintendent a salary that rivals Philadelphia’s, despite public outcry

The Central Bucks school board approved an $85,500 raise for its superintendent Tuesday night despite objections from community members who questioned the justification for such a steep increase.

The Republican-controlled board, which has been embroiled in culture war battles since the pandemic, approved a new five-year contract for Superintendent Abram Lucabaugh with a base salary of $315,000 — a nearly 40% increase over the $229,500 he made last year.

Since Lucabaugh — who was hired in 2021 with a salary of $225,000 — was just two years into his five-year contract, the board first accepted his resignation before voting 6-3 to approve the new deal, which puts him among Pennsylvania’s top-earning superintendents. Only Philadelphia’s Tony Watlington was paid more last year, with a salary of $340,000.

The new contract was disclosed Monday with the posting of the agenda for Tuesday’s board meeting.

“If that isn’t the definition of shady, I don’t know what is,” said Laurie Ann Moore, a retired teacher from Buckingham Township, addressing the board before the vote.

Lucabaugh has supported controversial policies enacted by the board’s Republican majority, such as bans on teacher advocacy in classrooms — including the display of Pride flags, which Lucabaugh likened to political symbols — and on “sexualized content” in library books.

Some in the community suggested that board members were trying to tie the hands of their potential replacements: With five of nine seats up for election in November and Democrats vying to take control of the board, any future move to terminate Lucabaugh would require paying him a year of severance, at the increased salary. (Lucabaugh will also be entitled to raises of 2.5% a year in the first two years of the contract, and 3% each of the remaining three years.)

“This is an extraordinary change,” said Ginger Hardwick, an employment lawyer in Doylestown. She noted other enhancements, including increases in district contributions to Lucabaugh’s retirement account and in compensation for unused sick and vacation days. (Under the former contract, Lucabaugh would be paid for up to 10 unused vacation days a year, with no cash payment for unused sick days; the new contract provides for payments for 15 unused vacation days a year and 25 unused sick days.)

“I look at contracts for a living; I’ve never seen a change like this,” Hardwick said at the board meeting, adding that there should have been “real negotiations” between the board and Lucabaugh before the deal was final.

Board members who approved the contract didn’t offer specifics Tuesday about how the raise or other terms were calculated — though they noted that Central Bucks had previously accepted superintendents’ resignations in order to grant new contracts.

Democrats accused the Republicans of negotiating behind closed doors, while some Republicans said they had seen the contract only when the whole board received it, on Friday.

“This is a total affront to the taxpayer,” said Democratic board member Mariam Mahmud. The board voted last month to raise taxes for the coming school year by 2.75%.

Lucabaugh did not talk about his contract during the Tuesday meeting, and did not respond to a reporter’s request for comment.

Republicans said they believed that it was worth retaining Lucabaugh, a former Central Bucks assistant superintendent and principal who was named superintendent in September 2021. Over the last year, “many” have been recruiting him, said the board’s president, Dana Hunter.

Of Lucabaugh’s performance, “we are bringing in tremendous talent and programs in academic instruction that other schools are not offering,” said board member Debra Cannon. She read a list of attributes that community members surveyed in 2021 had said they wanted in their superintendent: “has a clear educational vision,” “works well to set a clear direction for the district,” “is student centered and is safety centered.”

“Are you going to sit there and say none of that is Dr. Lucabaugh?” she said. (”Yes!” some in the crowd called out.)

Board members noted Central Bucks’s size — the third-largest district in the state, it enrolls more than 17,000 students — and suggested Lucabaugh was underpaid.

They also praised his actions regarding Michael London, a former Central Bucks teacher charged earlier this month with corruption of a minor, for allegedly sending messages of a sexual nature to a child. Lucabaugh said that after an initial probe by the Bucks County district attorney didn’t find evidence of criminal wrongdoing, he commissioned an internal investigation that led to the charges.

“We voted to fire that man, and that, in a normal situation, for a normal superintendent, would be the end of it,” said board member Jim Pepper. But Lucabaugh “dug, and he dug, and he dug.” Pepper said Lucabaugh’s raise was “worth every single penny.”

Speaking at the start of the meeting, Lucabaugh linked sexual misconduct by employees to the debate around school library books. He noted the district’s recent ban of This Book is Gay, a nonfiction book that aims to serve as a guide to LGBTQ relationships with “suggestions for using hookup apps,” Lucabaugh said.

“Given that the most recent occurrence of employee misconduct involved the use of one of these sex apps, I find it inconceivable anybody would support the existence of this content in our libraries,” Lucabaugh said.

He said there was “absolutely no reason for anyone to engage students in conversations about their sexual habits, their sexual preferences or their sexual orientation,” adding: “If you think it’s acceptable, this is your notice. I’m going to come for you.”

That comment didn’t sit well with some community members. “It’s unfounded and frankly disgusting to connect access to library books to criminal behavior,” said resident Amanda Paschke, who called it “very disturbing the superintendent would issue a direct threat.”

Paschke and others questioned the message sent to Central Bucks employees by the size of Lucabaugh’s raise — suggesting the district should instead pay more competitive wages for support staff, when it had more than 130 openings. (Lucabaugh said Tuesday that the district was hiring 58 support staff members, among a host of other positions.)

They also objected to the district’s costs for Duane Morris, the law firm hired to probe allegations of anti-LGBTQ discrimination that have been under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education. The firm, which determined that the claims were unfounded, has billed more than $1 million.

“How much more do the taxpayers have to pay?” said Steve McComas, a pastor who lives in Doylestown.

The board’s defenders said critics were simply being political.

“You don’t care about the 315,” Mara Witsen, of Chalfont, said of Lucabaugh’s new salary. “You care about who this is, and what they believe in.”