Denver Superintendent Susana Cordova will earn $260,000 under new contract

New Denver Superintendent Susana Cordova will earn $260,000 per year, according to a contract unanimously approved by the Denver school board Thursday night.

Her predecessor, Tom Boasberg, was earning $242,125 when he stepped down from the top job last year. Boasberg’s contract also included a potential $50,000 bonus. Cordova’s contract does not. She announced during recent teacher pay negotiations with the Denver teachers union that she would end bonuses for senior district administrators, including herself.

Cordova was selected as superintendent in December and began the job on Jan. 7. She has been working without a contract for the past two months.

She previously said she wanted to resolve a contract dispute between the district and the teachers union before discussing her own contract. The district and the union reached a tentative agreement on teacher pay on Feb. 14 after a three-day strike.

Cordova’s contract will run through June 30, 2022.

Cordova is a longtime Denver Public Schools employee, rising from teacher to principal to administrator and now superintendent. She also grew up in Denver and is a Denver Public Schools graduate.

The school board went into executive session for an hour Thursday to discuss the contract before voting on it in public. The executive session to discuss “matters that may be subject to negotiations” was posted on Thursday’s meeting agenda, but the vote was not. The agenda simply said the board would consider “new business.”

Denver Public Schools is Colorado’s largest school district with about 93,000 students. Cordova will earn more than Aurora Public Schools Superintendent Rico Munn but less than Jeffco Public Schools Superintendent Jason Glass. Jeffco is Colorado’s second-largest district.