Kriner Cash gets contract extension to stay Buffalo schools superintendent through June 2023

Cash’s current contract is up in August, but his bosses – the Buffalo Board of Education – reaffirmed their faith in the superintendent late Tuesday by extending his deal through June 30, 2023.

Details of the extension were not immediately available, but 2.5% annual raises have been standard during the course of his contract. Cash is scheduled to earn $311,138 for the 2020-21 school year, according to figures from the district.

The district has made “great progress” during Cash’s tenure in Buffalo and needs an experienced leader to help schools get through the Covid-19 pandemic, said Board President Sharon Belton-Cottman.

“He said he wants to be around for as long as he is needed and we made sure he understands we need him in Western New York,” Belton-Cottman said. “We’ll be talking more about expectations and how we are going to move things to the next level.”

The former head of Memphis City Schools, Cash came to Buffalo in 2015, bringing with him a “New Education Bargain” – a plan that stressed, among other things, more rigorous elementary education, new innovative high schools and more services for the neediest of children and their families. Two, one-year extensions followed, most recently in 2019.

But news last week that a three-year extension was in the works came as a surprise.

Cash signaled two years ago that he was nearing the end of his stay in Buffalo and looking forward to retiring to his home in Martha’s Vineyard. That was prior to the pandemic, however, and more recently Cash, 65, has expressed interest in seeing the school system through the difficult times ahead.

The board has been pleased with his job performance. Cash recently received another favorable review from the School Board, which gave him a cumulative score of 3.46 out of 4 on his annual evaluation. Board members have liked his vision for the district and the stability he has brought to it. The number of city schools in good standing has increased under his administration, while the district is on track to reaching his goal of a 70% graduation rate.

West District Board Member Jennifer Mecozzi floated a resolution last week to extend Cash’s contract another three years, but the board agreed to wait until Tuesday to discuss it in further detail.

That special meeting – held virtually and privately among the board members – convened for about five hours on Tuesday night and ended with the board settling on a two-year extension rather than three years.

Several scenarios were proposed by board members over the past couple of days, but the board decided the timing of the two-year extension – 22 months, actually – was best for the district, Belton-Cottman said.

The decision was unanimous among the nine-member board.

In recent days, though, several parents and clergy weighed in and asked that prior to approving any extension the School Board require Cash to submit a plan on how he will address a host of pressing issues.

That didn’t happen, but Belton-Cottman said the board has heard their concerns.

Chief among them right now are plans to improve the quality of remote instruction amid the pandemic and reopening schools for any student who wants in-person instruction, as soon as it is safe to do so. The need for more shared decision-making with parents and teachers has been another complaint.

“The board will be more progressive as we move forward to try to address the concerns of our constituents and our community,” Belton-Cottman said.