The Lyons-Brookfield Elementary School District 103 Board of Education has approved a termination agreement and settlement with Business Manager Jacqueline Parisi. 

School board members voted 6 to 0 (Coleen Shipbaugh was absent) to approve the agreement at their meeting on Feb. 23. Details of the settlement have not been released. 

The Landmark has filed a Freedom of Information request to obtain a copy of the settlement, but District 103 Superintendent Carol Baker told the Landmark that the settlement agreement would not be released until after Parisi signs it.

Parisi has been on paid administrative leave since Aug. 26, 2016, for reasons that have yet to be explained. Soon afterwards, the school district began taking steps to fire Parisi, whose annual salary is $118,000. Parisi was hired by the district in 2015.

The district has been negotiating with Parisi for the last few months. Parisi had requested a hearing before the board on her termination, but that hearing never took place because the separation agreement was being worked out.

School board members were instructed not to talk about the situation.

“The district was lucky” was the all that longtime board member Joanne Schaeffer would say about the settlement agreement.

Steve Langert, a retired school business manager, has been working part time at the district since Parisi was placed on leave. Langert is paid $100 an hour.

Baker says she anticipates that the district will now seek to hire a full-time business manager to start this summer.

“Our intent is that we will hire someone full time, but I don’t anticipate that we’ll be able to find a full-time person before July 1, because typically contracts are July 1 to July 1,” Baker said.

Board hikes sub pay

In other District 103 news, the school board on Feb. 23 voted 6 to 0 to increase substitute teacher pay by 10 dollars to $110 a day. Baker had sought the increase, saying that the district has had trouble recruiting substitute teachers.

“This will allow us to be a little more competitive with some of the other school districts in the area,” Baker said.

Riverside Elementary School District 96 pays its substitute teachers $105 a day.