Following a month of controversy surrounding Harford Schools top-paid employee, Superintendent Sean Bulson, the Board of Education is set to vote Monday night on Bulson’s future with the school system.

On the board’s agenda for Monday night’s meeting are two items — first, a decision on contract renewal, and second, a decision on Bulson’s current contract, which expires June 30.

In the last several weeks several state and county officials have called for Bulson to resign or for the board to not renew his four-year contract after an April 2024 call he made to 911 while in New Orleans for a school system-funded trip surfaced early last month.

In the call’s recording, Bulson told police that a woman he had invited into his hotel room allegedly stole his wallet, personal cellphone, an Apple watch, an iPad, and his school-issued laptop and cellphone after he fell asleep around 2 a.m.

The Harford County Board of Education voted to place Bulson on a paid 30-day administrative leave on Jan. 7, days after the call surfaced. Two separate investigations found that nothing had been stolen from Bulson and that his items were placed in a safe inside his hotel room. The items were returned shortly after they were reported stolen, the investigations found.

Bulson’s leave ended Saturday and, according to the District’s Manager of Communications, Jillian Lader, Bulson did not return to work Monday.

Bulson is the district’s top paid employee, earning an annual salary of $293,219.57. His four-year contract with the board is set to expire on June 30. He had formally requested in November that the board renew his contract for four more years, but amid the controversy, acting school board president Lauren Paige said she was near certain the board would not renew Bulson’s contract.

The board has several options on how to proceed with Bulson’s employment. It could terminate Bulson’s current contract and be required  to pay Bulson’s salary and benefits through the end of June. Or it could fire Bulson for “immorality, misconduct in office, insubordination, incompetency or willful neglect of duty,” and not have to pay out the funds, but the state superintendent would need to approve that decision. They could also retain Bulson for the remaining five months on his contract.

Paige previously said that a “best-case scenario” would be that the Board of Education negotiate a buyout package with Bulson to avoid a lawsuit, and begin the search for a new superintendent.

The New Orleans call is one of a few controversies Bulson has been at the center of recently. School board member Melissa Hahn called for Bulson’s resignation in September 2024 after the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Warren Grant inside Joppatowne High School, accusing Bulson of failing to take action on security and safety concerns that she believed he was aware of in advance of the shooting.

Last fall, Bulson came under fire for the district’s hiring and continued employment of teachers facing serious crimes. The first was in November when the district was criticized for the hiring of Edgewood Middle School English teacher Lawrence Smith while he had 15 pending felony theft charges stemming from his previous employment with Baltimore City Schools.

Although state law outlines the background check and hiring process for local school systems, state and local officials as well as community members scrutinized Bulson for the district’s lack of additional oversight. An investigation last month into Smith’s hiring conducted by the Maryland Office of the Inspector General for Education found that the district’s hiring personnel also failed to look further into Smith’s charges and Smith did not provide accurate details about the charges during his hiring process.

In December, criticism of Bulson and the district’s personnel policies reignited after The Baltimore Sun reported that an aid in Edgewood Elementary School remained employed with the school system after being arrested two times and charged with gun-related charges during his employment with Harford Schools.

In order for Bulson’s contract to be renewed, he would need six affirmative votes from the board’s 10 voting members, which includes the student member of the board.

If the motion to renew Bulson’s contract fails to achieve six or more affirmative votes, his contract will not be renewed.

Have a news tip? Contact Matt Hubbard at mhubbard@baltsun.com, 443-651-0101 or @mthubb on X.