Arlene Ackerman, the superintendent of the San Francisco public schools, can receive the recent raise and severance package agreed to last fall by the board of education, a judge has ruled.
California Superior Court Judge Ernest H. Goldsmith rejected a challenge to a $26,000 pay raise approved by the school board last fall, in addition to a $375,000 severance package if she left the district. Ms. Ackerman now earns $250,000 a year.
The plaintiffs had argued that the school board voted on the contract in a special meeting held before one lame-duck member left the board following her Nov. 3 defeat. They also questioned whether rules applying to county superintendents’ raises, which can only be granted during regular meetings, should apply to Ms. Ackerman, but the judge rejected that argument.
