SCHOOLS Superintendent says he's open to new job

The school board president wouldn't endorse the schools chief's job performance.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- Salem Schools Superintendent Dr. David Brobeck said that he is content as city schools chief but that he would also be willing to take a job elsewhere.
Brobeck was interviewed Wednesday for a job as Wooster schools superintendent.
No job offer was made, and the post went to someone else, Brobeck said Thursday.
He added that, even had it been offered, he might not have taken it because it would have meant moving.
Brobeck, who is 50 and has 29 years' experience as an educator, said that, given the right job, he could be lured away from the district, which he has guided for about four years. He earns $87,000 annually.
"I will consider other jobs," said Brobeck, who added that he didn't apply for the Wooster post but was invited to undergo an interview.
Routine offers
During his time at Salem, Brobeck said he has routinely fielded job offers, but this is the first time he actually submitted to an interview.
Brobeck, who once said he would like to conclude his career as an educator in Salem schools, wouldn't comment on why he's now open to leaving.
School board President Marguerite Miller said Brobeck never mentioned the Wooster interview to her. She learned of it elsewhere.
Miller declined to endorse Brobeck's job performance, saying only that he "has his strengths" and that he "has worked very hard."
"His relationship with this board is different than with the previous board," Miller added, declining to elaborate.
A retired Salem elementary principal, Miller was one of three new board members swept into office on the tails of a probe into former school treasurer Ted Cougras' school supplies purchases.
Now a felon
Cougras has since been convicted of 17 felony counts of bribery and other crimes connected with his purchasing. He awaits sentencing next week in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court.
Public concern regarding the months-long probe that led to Cougras' being charged contributed to the sweeping change in the school board's makeup, Brobeck has said.
His contract with the district ends in 2007. But there is a clause in the agreement that would allow a three-quarter's majority of the board to fire him in 2005.
Miller wouldn't comment when asked whether she would favor the school board's invoking the clause.
leigh@vindy.com