St. Johns County, Fla. — Dr. Brennan Asplen just went from St. Johns County’s superintendent nominee to the incoming superintendent.
He and the school board have been going back and forth over the last three weeks about the terms of his 3-year-long contract to become the school district’s next superintendent.
Action News Jax compared Asplen’s contract to the contract approved for current superintendent Tim Forson when he started in 2016.
We learned Asplen’s starting salary is $225,000 per year, $80,000 higher than the $165,000 per year Forson started with.
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Speaking only with Action News Jax, Dr. Asplen says his base salary is on the high end for the school district but the low end for similarly-sized districts.
“I feel great about the contract,” Dr. Asplen said, “I felt it was reasonable and fair.”
When the offer for the superintendent position was first made available, Dr. Asplen tells Action News Jax the salary range was between $175,000 - $230,000 per year, meaning his base salary is $5,000 short of the highest point on the range. But the district says it took a look at six other school districts in Florida around the same size as St. Johns, though not specifying which ones, and found the average starting salary for their superintendents was $250,000 per year.
During today’s school board meeting, board member Beverly Slough said part of the reason Asplen’s salary ended up being lower than the average was because of the uncertainty about the district’s budget for the following school year.
“We face interesting times with the budget ahead and not even knowing what our budget is from the state of Florida yet,” Slough said.
Asplen told Action News Jax the pay bump he’s receiving compared to Forson’s starting salary is connected to the district’s growth.
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When he was selected for the job three weeks ago, the district said it had 52,544 students in total.
When Forson first started as superintendent, the district said it had around 35,953 students.
“When you’re looking objectively at the number of students in a particular school district and what those superintendents are making at this point right now in 2025, that’s really where we looked to come up with the salary number,” Dr. Asplen said.
Asplen’s contract says his salary will go up every year at the same rate as the rest of the district’s instructional staff, as long as he meets expectations for the job.
He also has the opportunity to get a yearly set of separate $2,000 and $3,000 bonuses, depending on whether or not he maintains a special pair of certifications through the Florida Department of Education.
The contract says the school board can also decide to give Asplen an additional raise at the end of his superintendent evaluation in June of every year, should
they decide to do so.
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Apart from the salary, he’s set to get a $900 monthly car allowance, $300 higher than Superintendent Forson’s monthly allowance, and reimbursements for business done outside and inside the county related to his work as superintendent.
Asplen starts the job in three weeks and tells Action News Jax he’s feeling confident about his term.
“I think the transition [with Mr. Forson] has helped quite a bit, allows me to hit the deck running and, you know, we’ll just move forward in a positive direction,” Dr. Asplen said.
Asplen’s contract says he starts the job on July 1 and then will have it through June 30, 2028.
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