The Columbus Municipal School District Board of Trustees plans to unveil its top three superintendent finalists to the community in early June.
As of May 4, Columbus Municipal School Board had whittled the field of candidates to five semifinalists, from the 19 qualified applications submitted to the Mississippi School Boards Association (MSBA), which CMSD trustees hired in January to conduct the candidate search.
Trustees will interview the five semifinalists in executive session before selecting three finalists for public presentations, CMSD board president Jason Spears said.
The new superintendent will replace Philip Hickman, who was fired in February. CMSD trustees had already voted before Hickman’s termination, however, not to renew his contract past June 30.
Craig Shannon, deputy superintendent, is serving as interim superintendent during the search process.
CMSD trustees spent Friday morning and afternoon in an executive session that lasted almost three hours reviewing the 19 candidates for a second time.
Spears said the lengthy process will hopefully soon come to a close with a final decision.
“(The board) had very open and good conversation about all the candidates,” Spears said.
After the Friday meeting, the board chose five candidates to interview. Spears contacted Tommye Henderson, MSBA superintendent search consultant, to contact each of the chosen candidates with the interview times.
“They are very varied as far as background, (and) very successful at what they’ve been doing,” Spears said. “It was tough to narrow it down, but these (five) particular candidates resonated very well.”
The board will conduct interviews for all five candidates on May 22. The interviews will start in the morning, each lasting about an hour. After each candidate’s interview, the board will discuss the candidates for thirty minutes. Spears believes during the meeting, the board will choose three candidates to present to the public.
Once the candidates are narrowed down to three, a community meeting will be held to present the three candidates for the position. The goal is to have the meeting the second week of June in Joe Cook Elementary’s auditorium.
Spears said the goal is to have each of the three finalists give a 3- to 5-minute presentation to the public about his or her goals, visions and plans for the district. Spears intends to orchestrate a panel and moderator to ask questions submitted by the community to each of the candidates.
Spears and the board believe that each of the five candidates could fit well with CMSD, but the interviews on May 22 will help the board choose the top candidates to perform.
“I think if we continue the next couple phases of it, we will be able to get to the end,” Spears said.
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