The Cumberland County BOE met this afternoon and took questions from the media. One question asked of the five  members who voted to not renew DOS Stepp’s contract  was why they voted down DOS Billy Stepps contract, essentially firing Stepp as DOS even though his contract doesn’t end until June 30th. (BOE Member Elizabeth Stull was absent) Once the question was posed to BOE Member Davis  he became argumentative saying the media had it wrong.  BOE Member Davis, one of the five members voting to not renew Stepp’s contract, said Stepp’s contract is “as open as it was before” implying there could be further negotiations of Stepp’s contract. Davis took great pains to explain that the media didn’t understand the original motion.  BOE Member Stout then clarified “the motion was for the BOE to not accept Stepps contract” which was passed five to four.  Davis told Stout ‘you can interpret the motion however you want to but you’ve interpreted it incorrectly”  Ultimately Davis did not answer the original question of why he voted to not renew Stepps contract.  The message Davis seemed to be sending was that the original vote was to not accept DOS Stepps contract ‘only’ as it was written.

However, the board has not asked for a new contract to be considered thus far.  Mr. Stepp understood, based on the Boards 5 to 4 vote, that he was terminated at the end of his contract since there was no attempt to negotiate a revised contract.  Based on Mr. Davis’ statements it seems the Board may be open to revisiting Stepps contract in the future.

As for the original question why the Board members voted to not renew Stepps contract,   BOE Member Vanwinkle answered by saying “I’ve given my reasons already in previous meetings.”   BOE Member Matthews answered with “I honestly felt, like most parents do that, before I sat in this seat, I liked Mr. Stepp – thought he was doing a great job. Once I got in this seat I thought we could do better”.  BOE Member Hale (who made the original motion to not accept Stepps contract) stated “I feel he’s not leading us in the direction I’d like to see him lead”.

There is an ongoing investigation into the five BOE Members’ possible personal motivations for voting DOS Stepp out. Those findings are expected to be released to the public in the coming weeks.