Taylor out after 2011-12 school year

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Grand Rapids Public Schools Superintendent Bernard Taylor will leave the district at the end of the 2011-12 school year under a resignation agreement unanimously approved Thursday afternoon by the school board.

The deal gives the district stability and time to find a new leader. The superintendent gets a severance package that board president Senita Lenear estimated was worth about $400,000.

Asked why taxpayers should pay severance, the board president noted that "if Dr. Taylor was at-will terminated, the severance would be nearly $1 million."

Board members who agreed to the contract that provided the nearly $1 million severance and a rolling five-year term, including Lenear, argued Thursday it was needed to maintain stability in the district.

If Taylor stays on through summer 2012 as planned, he will be the longest-serving GRPS superintendent since Phillip Runkel's eight years in the 1970s.

Taylor was a finalist for the top jobs in the Cleveland and Syracuse, N.Y. school systems earlier this year.

Outgoing board member Catherine Mueller said she sees that as the superintendent looking at possible professional advancement. And she told reporters parting ways with the superintendent did not have to happen.

"We shouldn't be here," Mueller said. "We shouldn't be having this meeting. [Taylor] should be planning for the next five years in terms of the progress and the change that we need to keep this district going forward."

Board member Wendy Falb stressed the unanimous vote and told 24 Hour News 8 there is "a consensus right now that we should probably move to other things. Dr. Taylor has been looking for work elsewhere. I think it's just shoring up what we already know is going on. And it's time to move forward."

Paul Helder, president of the union representing GRPS teachers and a strong Taylor critic, said he had not yet seen the full terms of the deal. But he said he thought it could give the board the time to pick the right superintendent and not make "the same mistake they did last time."

Falb and Lenear said board members had not yet discussed the qualities they'd like to see in a new superintendent.

The task of finding a new superintendent will fall to a board with two new members, Dr. Monica Randles and Raynard Ross, who take office in July. They replace Mueller, who lost a bid for re-election, and Lisa Hinkel, who did not seek another term.

Recent public disputes involving GRPS could give superintendent candidates pause, said former Forest Hills superintendent and current search consultant Mike Washburn. But he said those interested in urban districts know they're going to deal with controversy and difficult change.

GRPS qualities including staff, civic involvement and philanthropy will be assets to the district in the search process, Washburn said.

"There are so many things that are in place that I think will allow this urban district to really propel past a lot of others," he said. "I think it'll be an attractive job."