Starkville school officials heard from seven concerned citizens in a meeting Wednesday where they began to lay out a plan for finding and hiring the next school superintendent.
All board members were present for the meeting. The mostly commonly repeated theme was the need for openness and community involvement in the selection process.
The board heard a plan — a draft of which is available on the school district”s website — to follow as they begin the search process for a new superintendent. They set a public hearing on this proposed process for 6 p.m. May 31. This meeting will be held in the multipurpose room at Sudduth Elementary School. The location was chosen to accommodate all who want to attend the hearing.
At the meeting Kathleen Oliveri, Simone Mackin, Rosalyn Ashford, Jonita Thompson, Amy Burchfield, Denise Cosper and Kim Walters addressed the board. Each had requested in advance to be placed on the agenda.
After Oliveri spoke and there was a scuffle, the board set a seven-minute time limit for these public remarks.
“The citizens are tired of this school board”s tyrannical rule,” she said. “Pick any topic, and the school board wields tyrannical control without respect for teacher or students.”
She listed as examples school uniforms and now the handling of former Superintendent Judy Couey”s employment.
“It”s no secret that I was not a supporter of our former superintendent,” Oliveri said. “Yet the manner in which the board removed her from the position was unethical and certainly no example for our children. Starkville School District is better than this.”
She called for an audit of the district to make sure “taxpayer dollars were not used to cover up problems at our schools.” She also called for some board members to leave the board.
“It is time to change the culture of our schools,” Oliveri said. “It is time to clean house at the top so that our children can thrive again one day. When selecting a new leader, reconsider your commitment to our children and then decide if you still belong at the Starkville School District.
“It is time, past time, for some of you to resign for the health of our school district,” she said.
Mackin said she hopes the board will examine their past practices to make sure they don”t repeat mistakes. She said Couey was hired rapidly without a search and without parent, teacher or community buy-in.
“Now, make the process open,” Mackin said, searching internally and externally for the best candidate.
She called the 3 p.m. meeting “the worst possible time” for teachers, administrators, parents and workers. She said the school board should work to not alienate the community in this process.
Ashford urged the board to fine “a true disciplinarian” for the next superintendent. She said schools are run without discipline and students are being encouraged to be undisciplined.
“I am a product of the school district and I”m proud to be a product of the school district, but right now I am not proud of the school district,” Ashford said.
Thompson called the last year “horrible,” and said it has caused many parents to home school their children or send them to other schools. She listed several characteristics she said the next superintendent should have, among them being a model citizen, maintaining good public relations, being persuasive and motivating others.
Burchfield said parents and teachers should have a substantial part in the selection process. The fact that they did not before “created a rift between them and administration.”
The district needs someone who will “make decisions based on what is best for our children, not what looks best in a report to Jackson,” Burchfield said.
Cosper said the district is at a crossroads and must consider input from taxpayers and parents if it is to go forward in a positive manner. She called for the issue of Couey”s departure to no longer “be swept under the rug.”
Concerns will continue to multiply and the district will spiral downward if the superintendent appears “to be a board lackey,” she said.
“The board has two real choices in hiring a new superintendent,” Cosper said. “The new hire must be someone with a proven track record from another district … or he or she must be a young, highly motivated person who wants a chance to shine.
“We don”t need someone mid-career who sees our district as just another problem to overcome,” Cosper said.
Walters asked the board to “stop playing games and hiding behind the letter of the law.” She said the candidates must see the community as working together, and the community should have a say in who is selected.
“The board needs to communicate with the public they are supposed to represent,” Walters said.
Board member Eric Heiselt presented a draft, which the board received well, of the search process he would like to see followed.
He called for a nationwide search, with job information being sent to the nation”s top educational leadership universities. He suggests four subcommittees of not more than 10 people be formed to “create a concise list of personal and professional qualities they would like to see in an ideal candidate.”
He proposed a school employee sub-committee, made up of school faculty and staff, but not administrators; a community member sub-committee, including members of faith-based organizations, business owners, university personnel and at least one elected official, preferably an alderman; a parent sub-committee that includes PTA leadership and parents who may not be in school parent organizations; and a school board and administrator sub-committee, composed of the five trustees and site administrators.
An executive search committee would consists of one or two members from each sub-committee. This committee would use the list of desirable characteristics developed by the sub-committees to review applicants. He proposed that the executive committee select final applicants, who will meet with each sub-committee and the general public.
According to Heiselt”s draft proposal, the executive committee would recommend a candidate to the school board. The school board will make the final decision, most likely in closed session.
His plan calls for the “offer notification (to be) announced immediately after coming out of executive session. Based on the applicants response to the offer, the public will be notified as soon as the final contract negotiations are finalized and a start date will be announced.”
The board asked several questions about the proposed search plan to clarify the make-up and input of the subcommittees, the proposed time schedule and more.
Keith Coble recommended the board consider bringing in consultants to help with the advertising and applicant review process. The board appointed he and Eddie Myles to research consultants and bring their findings to the next board meeting.
Lee Brand called Heiselt”s” plan “a good draft proposal.”
The board decided to hold the public hearing in two weeks, giving the public time to review the proposed search process. Through e-mailed comments and the public hearing, the public can address their concerns about or support of this plan for the district”s process of hiring a new superintendent.
The board set a three-minute time limit on public comments at this public hearing. Those wishing to speak will sign up for this when they arrive at the hearing.
The board will vote June 7 on how they will proceed with the superintendent”s search. This board meeting, the regularly scheduled business meeting for June, will be held at 6 p.m. in the Greensboro Center.
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