Board members with the Columbus Municipal School District emerged all smiles Thursday night after a two-hour meeting in executive session at Brandon Central Services to discuss the ongoing search for a superintendent.
Before the meeting, each board member was given a slim, spiral-bound booklet of resumes from the 20 candidates who have applied for the position. Board President Tommy Prude said interviews could begin before the end of the month, and a new superintendent is expected to be chosen by mid-June.
After discussing the merits of each candidate, the pool was narrowed somewhat during the meeting, Prude said. The board will send the list of preferred candidates to the Mississippi School Boards Association, which was hired last summer to conduct the search. MSBA officials will then notify the candidates and schedule interviews.
Prude declined to give the number of candidates still under consideration, but he said their names will be released once they have confirmed they are still interested and have consented to an interview.
Public interviews are expected to be held May 21-25. At the end of the week, the board will hold a special meeting to choose two preferred candidates to bring back for private interviews. The names of both finalists will be released at that time.
Prude said the board was pleased with the caliber of the candidates.
“One word — awesome,” he said Thursday night when asked about the quality of the applicants. “We’ve got some really good people.”
The board reviewed resumes of 10 applicants in March, but at the time Prude called the group “very disappointing” and asked the board to extend the application period to March 22 in hopes of getting a broader selection of candidates.
The board voted 4-1 to extend the search, with board member Currie Fisher casting the lone dissenting vote.
There are 15 men and five women applying for the position. Of those 20, there are six superintendents, one interim superintendent, one assistant superintendent, two former superintendents, three school principals, three directors of district programs, two professional consultants, a dropout prevention and special services person, and a substitute teacher.
Sixteen applicants have doctorate degrees. Thirteen applicants are from Mississippi, two are from Alabama, one is from Indiana, one is from Oklahoma, one is from Michigan, one is from Tennessee and one is from Wisconsin.
The district has been without a full time superintendent since May, when former superintendent Del Phillips resigned to accept a position as Director of Schools for the Sumner County School System in Gallatin, Tenn.
Since that time, the superintendent’s role has been filled by Interim Superintendent Dr. Martha Liddell. She previously expressed interest in applying for the superintendent’s position, but the board has not confirmed whether she is among the applicants.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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