Newport Superintendent Tony Watts’ duties with the district will end on June 30 after he and the board of education came to an agreement on his resignation.
Watts resigned as superintendent on May 15 after an over two-hour closed session meeting with the school board. At a special meeting on June 4, after speaking in a closed session, the Newport Board of Education passed a motion to sign the settlement and release agreement and covenant not to sue regarding Watts’ resignation. Though Watts’ superintendent duties will end on June 30, he will remain with the district until Aug. 1 to help in the search for an interim superintendent.
Watts left the meeting before the end of the closed session and did not comment on the matter.
According to the settlement release agreement, the parties “desire to voluntarily settle all disputes between them without admission by any fault, liability, omission, negligence, or wrongdoing of any kind.”
The agreement between the board of education and Watts states that “in exchange for the consideration of the payment by the Newport Independent School District of $175,000, inclusive of any claims asserted amounts asserted owed under the superintendent contract (including but not limited to claims for sick/vacation leave, medical insurance, retirement and/or other contributions), and all liens, attorney fees, costs and other expenses in hand, to be paid via check(s) made out to Antonio Watts.”
That language from the settlement and release agreement essentially means the district is paying Watts $175,000 total, and in exchange, he agrees not to ask for anything else tied to his job, contract, or benefits. He is also giving up the right to sue or make any future claims against the school district, school board, etc.
Before he resigned, Watts’ contract was from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2028.
In addition, during the meeting, the board continued to eliminate district jobs and programs, including the chief academic officer’s role.
As of this year, the role filled by Darla Payne made $111,452.67. Payne is now stepping into a new role as an Education Recovery Leader for the Kentucky Department of Education for the 2025-2026 school year. According to the Kentucky Center for School Safety, a Kentucky Department of Education Recovery Leader provides support and guidance to schools in need of improvement.Â
Though Payne is technically an employee of the district, the Kentucky Department of Education will pay her salary of $110,000, not the school.
The board approved this role through the adoption of a memorandum of agreement. Payne’s new role will begin in July.
Watts said that once that position ends, Payne could decide to return to the district, though not necessarily in her original role, or go somewhere else.
During the meeting, the board also voted to enable a hiring freeze for the director of curriculum. Newport Board of Education Chair Ramona Malone said the board wished to implement a hiring freeze to give it time to discuss what that role should look like.
“We’re going to hold up fill that position for now, until we can have further discussion about, how does that impact the budget, and having Mr. Watts help us figure out now that it’s just one person versus two and history, there were five [people] then that went down to four and three, two and now one,” Malone said.
The board also voted to eliminate the director of facilities, transportation, and safety position and the corresponding salary schedule. The position was held by Dennis Maines, who is retiring. Malone said it was the recommendation of Watts that the position not be filled, and the duties were assigned to other employees in the district.
In January, former district Finance Director Jennifer Hoover said the school district was facing a $3.9 million budget deficit for the 2026 school year, which would likely lead to job losses. The Newport Teachers Association, the district’s teachers union, called for a “no confidence” vote in Watts at the board meeting on Feb. 26, which failed to garner support among the board members.
On May 2, according to information from the superintendent’s office, the district sent out 30 non-renewal letters to teachers at several schools throughout the district and then just this week, the board cut the administrative positions.
The board of education voted to eliminate seven non-teaching staff positions at a special meeting on May 14.
A contract with Christ Hospital to provide a nurse practitioner for the district (in addition to the school nurses already in place) was tabled during the May 14 meeting due to remaining questions among the board members about how the position would be paid. The topic was brought up again on June 4, when the board voted to eliminate the contract.
The contract was from 2015, and board attorney Brandon Voelker recommended that the school board re-examine it and update it to meet its current needs.
“It’s a program that is, in my opinion, especially after the call I had today, that we received a very large number of briefings on nurses who are not happy that it’s something that the whole system probably needs to be refined,” Voelker said.
