UPDATE: Audio from each of the three interviews has been added to this story.
PREVIOUSLY: After a year in flux, the Columbus Municipal School District has a new superintendent, Board President Tommy Prude announced Saturday afternoon, declining to release the name of the chosen candidate.
The board met Saturday morning to discuss the candidates.
Prude later noted the next superintendent will not be Dr. Pamela Henson, director of instructional support for the Baldwin County Board of Education in Bay Minette, Ala.
Henson withdrew her name from consideration due to personal reasons, Prude announced Saturday night. Henson confirmed there was a death in her family.
The final three candidates, including Henson, were interviewed this week at Brandon Central Services.
Prude said the name should be disclosed early next week.
“If we announce it and the person refuses, we have to start all over,” Prude said. “It’s such a critical issue, we really want to make sure we have the right person. I feel it’s the right person, and I’m hopeful the person will accept our conditions.”
Earlier this month, the board narrowed the superintendent search to four candidates. Less than a week later, Dr. John G. Ladner, interim superintendent of the Moss Point School District, withdrew his name from consideration.
The final three interviews began Tuesday night, when Isaac “Ike” Leon Haynes Jr., superintendent of the Jefferson Davis County School District, appeared before the board. Thursday night, Henson interviewed. The interviews concluded Friday night with Dr. Martha Liddell, interim superintendent of Columbus city schools.
Each candidate began the interview with a brief presentation before submitting to an hour-long round robin-style question and answer session with the board. The interviews were held publicly, but attendees were not allowed to ask questions, though they were allowed to speak with candidates afterward.
The boardroom was filled each night with concerned citizens who came armed with legal pads and pens, jotting notes about each candidate during the interviews. Fifty people were chosen from the community — 14 by the board and the remainder by lottery — to fill out a feedback survey at the end of their designated candidate’s interview.
The 50 were divided into three groups, and each group was only allowed to give feedback on one candidate, though many participants attended all three interviews.
Some attendees, like retired CMSD history teacher Ezra Baker, said they felt the survey groups should have been allowed to give feedback on all three candidates, so they could make comparisons between them.
But Prude said he was pleased with the method the board used, though he admitted it was labor-intensive.
“It’s been a very beautiful process,” he said Friday night as people streamed out into the hallway following Liddell’s interview. “Participation has really been excellent.”
The district has been without a full-time superintendent since May 2011, when then-Superintendent. Dr. Del Phillips resigned to accept a position as Director of Schools for the Sumner County School System in Gallatin, Tenn.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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