School Supt. Jenney drops out of Duke MBA program for 2 quarters

School Board Chairman Daniel  Edwards confirmed to VNS that School Supt. Timothy Jenney has delayed completion of his taxpayer-financed MBA program at Duke University for a year.

Bill to make school superintendent's salary subject to public hearing killed

HB 1839, which would have required school boards to hold a public hearing if it renegotiated or increased a school superintendent's salary, was killed Wednesday for this session of the General Assembly.

VB School Supt. Jenney had his $100,000/year aide in Richmond lobbying against the bill.  He was reportedly furious that someone would try to make such information a public event.  (See:  Lobbying)

Jim McIntyre, aide to bill patron Del. Gary Reese said, "You'll see this come back.  We just don't believe the public's business should be done in secret." 

Jenney told some, but not all board members. He said that instead of completing his MBA as planned in September of this year, he won't complete it before September 2004.  At least two (2) members of board told VNS they had not been told of Jenney delaying his MBA.

Jenney who appears obsessed with secrecy has not made the change in education plans public, but apparently he did tell some members of the board.  Board members did not discuss Jenney's reason saying it was 'private.'

Bill will allow superintendents to buy their way to retirement

Del. John S. Reid, chief opponent of HB 1839 to make negotiations with school superintendents public record, has a bill that allows them to buy their retirement service.

Reid's bill, HB 2122 allows, under the Virginia Retirement System, increasing from 4 years to 14 years the maximum years of retirement service credit that may be purchased by a school division superintendent for prior service for the Commonwealth or another state.

According to comments before legislators Thursday, it will make 51 of 134 superintendents eligible for retirement in 5 years.

One source said Jenney had said that he couldn't handle the MBA studies because of his his current personal situation.  He is in the process of getting a divorce.

He said the delay won't be any additional cost to the taxpayers, but if there are extra charges he will pay for them himself.

There were reports that when he began the $70,000 MBA program, he had staffers read his homework into a tape recorder for him to listen to on his drive to the Carolina university.  Later it was reported that he had someone to drive him so he could study while traveling.  Neither Jenney nor a spokesperson for him returned telephone calls to inquire about the situation Thursday.

One source said the board might be concerned if he used staffers to help him prepare his lessons, but that if his driver was not charging the school administration, there'd be no interest in that situation.

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