BREA : Contract Extended for Schools Chief

The Brea-Olinda Unified School District Board of Education voted this week to extend the contract of Supt. Edgar Z. Seal for two more years.

Seal’s contract was to have expired in June, 1992. The extension, which does not include a raise or increase in benefits, is designed to keep him in Brea until June, 1994.

Trustee Leonard MacKain, who supported the extension, said it offered the district a chance to retain a competent, well-liked administrator. Earlier in the meeting, MacKain had praised Seal for his business acumen, which has been tested recently as the district has embarked on an ambitious building project and grappled with a tight budget.

Although Wednesday’s vote was unanimous, one board member, John Zeckler, a science teacher at Brea Olinda High School and president of the district’s teachers association, questioned the timing of the move.

“I don’t want the public the get the perception that Brea has the money to do this,” Zeckler said. “We don’t.”

Zeckler referred to the more than $700,000 that the district has had to cut from its 1990-91 budget, adding that the district does not have the money to maintain schools at minimum levels. Zeckler praised Seal’s work but added that he was worried that extending the superintendent’s contract would send a message to the public that the district has more money than it does.

But several board members and Seal himself disputed Zeckler’s remarks.

“You are going to have a superintendent, whether it is me or someone else,” Seal said.

Seal was hired by the school board in July, 1982. After an initial two-year contract, Seal was given a four-year contract that has been extended two years every two years.