STARKVILLE — The Starkville School District board of trustees today begins the next phase of its superintendent search.
The board scheduled a special called meeting with the Mississippi School Boards Association for noon at the Greensboro Center.
MSBA was contracted to assist with the search for $9,500, plus expenses.
MSBA will present the results of 23 interviews with candidates from eight states. MSBA will not recommend a candidate; the local school board will take over the search after today so long as enough candidates are available to build a quality short list.
“(MSBA) did tell us it’s a good pool,” said Keith Coble, SSD board president, “and that made us on the board feel a bit better about the process we’re taking.”
MSBA will reopen the search if the board doesn’t get a suitable candidate from the group. The association, per policy, hasn’t released applicant information to any members of the board.
One applicant in the mix is SSD Assistant Superintendent Walter Gonsoulin, who was one of three finalists for the superintendent position at Lafayette Parish School District in his native Louisiana.
Lafayette’s board elected to hire Pat Cooper, a longtime administrator in Louisiana who worked for the state’s Department of Education. Gonsoulin received one of nine votes from the LPSD board, according to The Independent Weekly newspaper.
Gonsoulin said his family was disappointed — he grew up in New Iberia, La., just 23 miles from Lafayette — but he was relieved.
Gonsoulin, who has four years of service to SSD, previously said his preference was to remain in Starkville but he would take a superintendent job in another district to further his career.
“Things worked out the way they were supposed to,” Gonsoulin said. “I’m thankful for the process.”
With Gonsoulin still in the fold, the SSD has avoided the unfavorable position of having to fill the superintendent position and begin a search to replace Gonsoulin. Coble said he and the board had not discussed how to handle a replacement for Gonsoulin.
The board hasn’t set a timeline to name a new superintendent, and Coble is unsure whether the board will set one today. He said the board is unlikely to hire someone before the beginning of the year, noting the board’s commitment to conduct a thorough search and give the public adequate access to candidates.
“We’ll know a lot more after today’s meeting,” Coble said. “We’ll have to work out the logistics in terms of bringing in candidates. Being on search committees at (Mississippi State University), and sometimes it’s obvious the way forward. Other times, it’s not. What we don’t know yet is if it’s going to be a straightforward process to develop a short list or if it’s going to take some time.”
The MSBA is conducting superintendent searches for the school districts of Tupelo, Columbus, Starkville, Oxford and Natchez. All the districts have different target dates for hires. MSBA consultant Harold Fisher said there are overlapping candidates for multiple jobs.
During his interview with the MSBA, Gonsoulin was asked mostly technical, general education questions, he said. The association also asked him about his assistant superintendent role and his networking in the community.
SSD is looking to replace Judy Couey, who resigned in April, Couey became superintendent of the district in July 2008. She came to the district as assistant superintendent in June 2006.
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