Members of the Shelby County Board of Education met in a work session Monday to discuss setting the salary for the incoming elected superintendent of schools.

School Board member Steve Martin noted that a new superintendent will come into office after the election is certified in November and take office in January.

&8220;And one thing I wanted to do was get the air cleared before anybody made comment because of politics or personality,&8221; he said. &8220;The thing I wanted to discuss is the superintendent&8217;s salary and what I would propose the board do is set up a salary based on incentive pay to have a fair base pay, possibility of additional funds based on specific goals and objectives the board sets.&8221;

He also said, &8220;I think the other things to be considered in salary are experience, degree and we&8217;ve traditionally had sort of automatic raises between two percent and four percent ever year, and I feel that the raises ought to be looked at…&8221;

While all board members were present, no action could be taken during the session.

A Madison county plan raised by Martin would give the school superintendent an opportunity to earn incentives based on an evaluation, the implementation of a capital plan, maintenance of a reserve fund and improving the dropout rate one-half percent lower than the previous year.

Board members also discussed tying superintendent&8217;s raises to teacher raises granted by the state.

But it was the evaluation system that caused the most concern.

School Board Attorney Donald Sweeney said the main plus for the Madison County evaluation system is that, &8220;Is it&8217;s been in place three years and survived challenge.&8221;

But he stressed that any evaluation system would have to have a quantified formula. He said if X then Y happens and X and Y must be defined.

Board members discussed a base salary of $128,000 with up to $16,000 in incentives. Also discusses was a base play of $128,000 with an annual 4 percent raise that would result in a salary of $143,982 the fourth year.

Sweeney agreed to let the board know if the salary would have to be in place by July 18.

According to state Department of Education information, superintendents for Mountain Brook City, Birmingham City, Huntsville City, Hoover City, Opelika City, Madison City, Homewood City, Vestavia Hills City, Auburn City and Trussville City are all appointed.

And of Jefferson County, Montgomery County, Mobile County, Shelby County, Calhoun County, Baldwin County, Walker County, Marshall County, Etowah County and Limestone County, only Shelby, Walker and Marshall have elected superintendents.

Outgoing superintendent Evan Major earns

$143,515 to oversee a school system with 24,891.70 students.

By comparison for FY 2005-2206 Walker County pays $126,900 ($121,900 plus $5,000 travel) to oversee a system of 8,462.60 students. And Marshall County pays $122,721 ($121,321 plus $1,400) travel to oversee a system of 5,467.45 students