The Ellsworth-Kanopolis-Geneseo School District will pay former superintendent Josh Lanning a lump sum of $38,000 as part of a separation and release agreement approved at the school board’s March 7 meeting.

The Independent-Reporter received a copy of the agreement in which Lanning “voluntarily resigns from employment with the district” after filing an open record request with board clerk Dina Rankin.

The agreement also calls for the district to pay Lanning a lump sum of $9,540 for 18 months of its contribution for the premium for individual health insurance.

His salary when he left the district was $105,000.

The agreement does not offer any reason for Lanning’s departure prior to the end of the school year after only about nine months on the job.

Instead, the agreement contains a confidentiality clause “to prohibit disclosure of any details concerning Lanning’s employment or separation beyond the members of the board, the board clerk, any district staff members who need to know to process payment of consideration provided for herein, and counsel for the parties, except as may be required by the terms of this settlement agreement and release, the Kansas Open Record Act, or by State law.”