At the Norman Public Schools Board of Education meeting on April 13, disagreement over the president and vice president nominations mirrored the split over district Superintendent Nick Migliorino’s contract, which was approved in a 3-2 vote in February.
OU Daily contacted NPS staff for a copy of Migliorino’s contract on Feb. 5, and NPS Communications Coordinator Jaron Spor sent the contract Wednesday. The Daily previously obtained the contract two days earlier, on April 13, from board member Annette Price.
Migliorino’s pay totaled $412,524 in the 2025-26 fiscal year, according to state data from early March. Migliorino is the highest paid superintendent in the state.
The Daily requested an estimate of Migliorino’s total compensation for this fiscal year, but Spor declined to provide a number, writing that everything needed to calculate it is in the contract.
Migliorino’s pay for the 2026-27 fiscal year is the total of:
• His $261,419.05 base salary.
• A retention stipend of 10% of his base salary each year he’s employed by the district.
• The higher of two options:
• A 2.25% increase from his previous year’s base salary.
• The average raise of all off-scale employees.
According to contracts provided by Spor, Migliorino’s base salary will be the same for the 2026-27 fiscal year as it was the previous year. His base salary was $170,000 when he began as superintendent in 2017.
After Migliorino, the current highest paid superintendents in Oklahoma are:
• Lawton Superintendent Kevin Hime, who made $408,862.
• Broken Arrow Superintendent Chuck Perry, who made $380,048.
• Jenks Superintendent Stacey Butterfield, who made $324,086.
Compared to other districts in the metro area, Moore Superintendent Robert Romines made $291,139, Oklahoma City Superintendent Jamie C. Polk made $289,033 and Edmond Superintendent Josh Delich made $284,987.
The board’s discussion about renewing Migliorino’s contract occurred in executive session, so members cannot disclose what was said.
Board members Annette Price and Alex Ruggiers voted against renewing the contract, which now extends through 2029. Dawn Brockman, Dirk O’Hara and Tori Collier voted in favor.
O’Hara told the Daily Tuesday he believes Migliorino is the top superintendent in the state and deserved to have his contract renewed. He compared Migliorino to Yukon Superintendent Keith Sinor, who was hired last year. O’Hara said Sinor is paid more than Migliorino.
“If you're going to look to hire someone, you've got to pay within the market range to get someone,” O’Hara said. “If you want an A-player, ... you need to have compensation.”
State data shows Sinor made $255,912 in the 2025-26 fiscal year. A spokesperson with Yukon Public Schools wrote in an email to the Daily Wednesday that Sinor’s contract guarantees a minimum pay of $201,600 for the 2026-27 fiscal year.
Price and Ruggiers also voted against renewing Migliorino’s contract last year. In previous years, the board unanimously approved Migliorino’s contract, which included Ruggiers and Price in 2023 and 2024. In the 2023-24 school year, Migliorino made $374,738, according to The Oklahoman.
Price told the Daily on April 13 she is concerned about education administrators being so highly paid and said it contributes to a superintendent “pay race” among districts.
“When we're trying to make every education dollar count, we need to look at everything,” Price said.
Price said these funds are coming out of the classroom, and the district has other needs that money could go toward instead.
Ruggiers said Migliorino’s compensation has grown at a much faster rate than teacher pay, and superintendent pay across the state is climbing.
“There has to be some kind of limit, for the sake of being respectful to the taxpayers,” Ruggiers said. “We can't just pay more because everybody else is doing it.”
Ruggiers also said he dislikes that the board evaluates and renews Migliorino’s three-year contract annually. He said it is irresponsible and could trap a future school board when its members want a change in superintendent.
Brockman and Collier declined requests to interview about the contract.
Former school board president Tina Floyd spoke during public comment at the February meeting in support of Migliorino’s tenure. In an interview with the Daily in February, Floyd said Price and Ruggiers don’t have confidence in Migliorino’s work for personal reasons, but they have not told her why.
“I would like to hear (their) concrete evidence,” Floyd said. “I've emailed my representative, Annette (Price), many times, and she will not return my emails.”
Floyd said Price and Ruggiers are listening to a few critics of Migliorino rather than the majority of staff members who she said, according to results from anonymous surveys sent to the district, are happy with him.
“We are here for kids at the end of the day,” Floyd said. “They are the ones that don't have a voice. So that's my questioning. Are all five of us on the board — not me now — all five of them on the board acting in good faith and what's best for children?”
Impact on president, vice president election
At the April 13 board meeting, Brockman was elected president of the board, and O’Hara, last term’s president, was elected vice president. Board member positions typically rotate chronologically through the five offices, which would have placed Office 2 board member Ruggiers as president and Office 3 board member Price as vice president.
Instead, O’Hara nominated Brockman for the presidency and Brockman nominated O’Hara for the vice presidency. At the meeting, Price asked O’Hara why he didn’t follow board tradition.
“I nominated the person who’s best suited for the position,” O’Hara said.
Price walked out of the meeting following the elections.
O’Hara told the Daily he nominated Brockman because he believes it wouldn’t be best for the district and its students to have a president who disagrees with the superintendent.
“It's not a healthy situation to put two people in leadership that have voted two years in a row to not extend the superintendent's contract,” O’Hara said.
After the meeting, Brockman told the Daily there have been years where the board deviated from tradition when needed and it was the right thing to do to forward the district. Brockman said it wasn’t a personal decision.
“I want to emphasize that the role of the school board president is the person who works with the superintendent hand-in-glove,” Brockman said. “We had two people who voted against extending his contract, and so it was probably appropriate — or we felt it was appropriate — that we have the right people in the positions so that what happens in our district isn’t disrupted and that we take care of the district.”
Ruggiers said he was surprised because he expected to be nominated for president, but he is happy to continue to serve as a board member. He said the contract is the main issue causing division.
“There're some board members who feel that only people who are compliant and do not push back against norms are welcome to be president of the board,” Ruggiers said.
Following the meeting, Price told the Daily in a phone call that the decision seemed personal and she left the meeting because she did not want to be in an environment that wasn’t serving students.
Price told the Daily Wednesday that punishing members who represent a different part of town is a “political tactic” that bypasses standard practices and doesn’t promote the values of the school board.
“It is wrong to, number one, disenfranchise voters by not allowing central Norman and the northeast side of Norman (to) have their school board member in a leadership position,” Price said. “Rotating every year has worked out great in the past.”
Price said having a healthy board doesn’t mean every vote is unanimous, and people should be able to raise differing opinions.
O’Hara said this division doesn’t pervade all topics, and members often vote unanimously or vote in different combinations.
“To me, this centers around the leadership of schools through our superintendent,” O’Hara said.
This story was edited by Anusha Fathepure, Macey Thaxton and Audrey McClour. Chelsea Low, Vanessa Essien and Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.
