School Board gives Van Metre four-year contract

The Calcasieu Parish School Board finalized new Superintendent Jason Van Metre’s contract at a special meeting on Thursday, July 11.

VanMetre was chosen as superintendent on Tuesday out of a pool of five finalists.

While presenting the contract, VanMetre said it was “very similar” to former superintendent Shannon LaFargue’s contract, with only a few changes.

LaFargue’s final salary was $192,850. In his contract, VanMetre rounded down and requested $192,000.

The contract also stipulated his first evaluation would be in September 2025, and included an addendum requiring VanMetre to designate a second.

The largest change to the contract was the term limit. LaFargue’s contracted term was two and a half years. VanMetre requested a four-year term limit — the state maximum term limit.

Board President Eric Tarver, District 8, said the max limit they could give LaFargue was two and a half years because he was hired more than two years into the board’s term, but a four-year term limit is “typical.”

Betty Washington, District 7, made a motion to decrease the term limit to two and a half years. She said she was partly opposed to a four-year contract because he only served as chief academic officer for two years, citing a lack of adequate amount of school performance data to analyze his effectiveness in that role.

VanMetre confirmed the board members did receive data in November 2023 that would have reflected one full-year of school performance.

Washington also said recent and future legislation related to education could put a kink in the superintendent evaluation process.

“If we do a four-year contract, all of the future mandates that the state keeps pushing down our throats will not be part of your evaluation system, and I feel like it should be. … I just think that a two-and-a-half-year contract will allow us to put in the criteria we need to put in.”

Additionally, she wanted to reduce the term limit so the board could evaluate VanMetre’s progress in addressing diversity issues sooner.

Dean Roberts, District 6, said that he is against the two and a half year term-limit because the district needs consistency.

“There’s been enough turnover, disruption, controversy, showmanship, whatever you want to call it,” he said. “When you’re elected to this board, you’re not given two and half years, when you have no experience when you get here your first term.

“This man has one heck of a resume. He’s experienced. He’s ready for it. This district needs stability, and we need to use the four-year contract to achieve it, period.”

Washington’s motion to amend the contract failed, with only two votes in favor. Washington and Karen Hardy McReynolds, District 2, voted in favor of the amendment.

VanMetre’s contract was then unanimously approved with one change; VanMetre’s evaluation at the end of his term will take place in February 2028 instead of May 2028.

Glenda Gay, District 3, and Desmond Wallace. District 14, were not present for the meeting.