Central Bucks Gives Superintendent 5-Year Contract, $86,000 Raise

DOYLESTOWN, PA ? The Central Bucks School Board on Tuesday gave Superintendent Dr. Abram Lucabaugh a new five-year contract and a $86,000 pay increase making him one of the highest-paid public school administrators in Pennsylvania.

In a series of motions, the board voted to accept Dr. Abram Lucabaugh's resignation, dissolving his previous 5-year contract which would have expired in 2026; approved a new 5-year agreement effective July 25; and inked an employment agreement that boosts the superintendent's base salary from $229,500 to $315,000.

"I know that over the course of the last year many have reached out to Dr. Lucabaugh and tried to recruit him. I believe in his leadership and I think it's in the best interest of this district to keep him," said board president Dana Hunter.

The board hired Dr. Lucabaugh as superintendent in 2021 to oversee the third-largest district in Pennsylvania with 17,540 students. He has spent his entire career in the district previously holding the positions of assistant superintendent, high school principal, and assistant middle school principal.

Voting in favor of the new contract and employment agreement were board members Dana Hunter, Leigh Vlasblom, Debra Cannon, Sharon Collopy, James Pepper, and Lisa Sciscio. Voting against the motions were Dr. Tabitha Dell'Angelo, Dr. Mariam Mahmud, and Karen Smith.

"We've had, since 2012, five superintendents. And this district needs stability," said Vlasblom. "We need consistency. We need to allow the staff and teachers to do their job and not be in this constant turmoil of who is going to be leading the district. For me, the stability is super important. and it's also why we chose an internal candidate. That's why I'm in support of a five-year term."

Several board members specifically cited Lucabaugh's recent handling of Central Bucks South teacher Michael London who was fired by the school board last December for having sent inappropriate text messages to a minor as reason enough for a contract extension and salary increase.

"(The firing) for a normal situation, would have been the end of it. But that was not the end of it for this man," said Pepper. "He dug and dug and that man was charged, not because of the district attorney but because of him. So when people ask me about giving him a big raise, to me it's worth every single penny. This man has the safety of all of our children at the forefront of his mind every single day. And that's why I will be an enthusiastic yes for increasing his pay and extending his contract."

Sciscio added that when Dr. Lucabaugh was hired, "One of the things I told him to focus on was the safety and security of our students. He listened to what I had to say and he has done such a phenomenal job really focusing on keeping our students safe. I can't say enough."

Cannon hearkened back to a community survey done in 2021 as the district began its search for a new superintendent. That survey, she said, yielded four traits the community wanted in its next superintendent - a clear educational vision, works well to set a clear direction for the district, is student-centered, and safety-centered. "Are you going to sit there and say none of that is Dr. Lucabaugh?" she asked the three board members who voted against the motion.

Dell'Angelo said there's no doubt Dr. Lucabaugh has "done a lot of good work" for the district. "It's sometimes an impossible job. And I do think the current salary is too low. If I had been asked, I would have recommended a raise for sure.

"Dr. Lucabaugh went above and beyond in terms of Mr. London," she continued. "I acknowledge that in private. However, when I was running for the board we were in the midst of support staff negotiations and I watched them begging for relatively small raises. What we settled on was well below market and we suffered for the last two years with support staff shortages.

"No matter how much you might feel positive about Dr. Lucabaugh, the budget discussion we just had makes it so difficult to accept a 40 percent pay raise and a $85,000 pay raise," Dell'Angelo continued. "I'm having a hard time accepting this huge pay raise in the face of many of our employees being paid under market. I'm not opposed to a pay raise. But this one, it's too big."

Collopy admitted that she doesn't like the number either. "But it's best for our district to keep Dr. Lucabaugh and best for our children."

Smith, who said she first learned about the new contract when she received a copy of the agenda on Friday, blasted the board for violating the Sunshine Act for "shrouding the contract in secrecy," an allegation the board majority denies.

"But the most egregious part of this contract is the absolutely grotesque salary increase," Smith continued. "When our district is struggling to retain and attract employees at every level, particularly our support staff, we worked hard as a board during negotiations to keep increases for all of our staff around two-and-a-half percent. And yet this is an increase of 40 percent, a raise that is more than most of our teachers earn and it's for a position that is already at market value," said Smith.

"There's no level of rationale that makes this level of increase acceptable. It's insulting to all of our staff. If we can't afford an employee within the reasonable market value parameters that we have set and that employee wants to leave, there's the door."

Mahmud called the salary increase "a total affront to the taxpayer. It's an incredible raise at a time when it's just not defensible to me. Those who work closest to our students deserve the most right now and we're not giving them that," she said.

Vlasblom defended the salary increase, noting that when the board hired Lucabaugh internally the board "went low" on his salary "because we could. We wanted to try it out," she said of the new superintendent. "So then when you do want to get up to market, it is a bigger jump. That probably was a bad decision on our part looking back. I don't know where I would have landed, but this is what I was presented with."

Dell'Angelo responded, "There's desirable and there's feasible. And we just raised taxes just to get our support staff almost to market. And it's not just the salary. It's the contract that allows the selling back of vacation and sick days, which is not customary. So there's a potential of another $100,000 that could be made on top of the salary. Want to paint the house? Well, maybe you have to wait."