About six weeks after Dr. Jonathan Brice tendered his resignation, the Bristol Warren Regional School District and the former superintendent of schools have closed the book on their two-year relationship.

Dr. Brice resigned in a closed-door session with the school committee on July 19 and he worked his final day on July 20. According to the “Settlement Agreement” signed by Dr. Brice and Bristol Warren School Committee Chairperson Marjorie McBride, the district agreed to pay his normal salary through the end of July, followed by a $41,250 severance by the end of August. That severance represents about 25 percent of Dr. Brice’s annual salary from the district.

The parties mutually agreed to terminate the employment agreement originally signed in November of 2019, a few months after Dr. Brice was first hired as an interim superintendent to replace former superintendent of schools Mario Andrade. Dr. Brice’s “interim” status was short-lived back in 2019, as school committee members quickly became enamored with his exuberant personality and commanding presence and signed him to a three-year contract.

The end of Dr. Brice’s brief tenure has some similarities to the end of Mr. Andrade’s long tenure in Bristol Warren. In the summer of 2019, the school committee agreed to pay Mr. Andrade $100,000 in severance when he still had a year remaining on his contract. That followed months of controversy, headlines and talk radio fodder about discipline problems in the district, highlighted by a one-day “sickout” from teachers at Kickemuit Middle School.

The end of Dr. Brice’s Bristol Warren stint also came after months of controversy, headlines and talk show fodder about budget shortfalls, financial mismanagement and launching the new school year on the Jewish high holiday of Rosh Hashanah. Dr. Brice resolved the Rosh Hashanah controversy the same day he resigned by overruling the school committee and moving the district’s start date one day later. Then he, too, agreed to a severance payment and left the district with a year remaining on his contract.

The district has since hired Robert Hicks as an interim superintendent, working part-time, and it will be forming a search committee to seek a permanent replacement.

In their settlement agreement, Dr. Brice and the district agreed that neither party would criticize or speak negatively about the other. They also stipulated that the Agreement itself was a confidential personnel agreement that shall not be disclosed to the public. The Phoenix obtained a copy from the district’s legal counsel after filing a request under the Rhode Island Access to Public Records Act.