After a year of transition, the city school board met last week to review superintendent resumes, swiftly choosing from 20 applicants to four preferred candidates. Interviews will begin in less than two weeks.
Columbus Municipal School District Board President Tommy Prude announced the names of three candidates Wednesday, but declined to release one name at the candidate’s request. Public interviews will be held for all, except the anonymous contender, who has requested a closed interview.
The three named candidates are Isaac “Ike” Leon Haynes, superintendent of the Jefferson Davis County School District; Dr. Pamela Taylor Henson, director of instructional support for the Baldwin County Board of Education in Alabama; and Dr. Martha Liddell, current interim superintendent for the Columbus city schools.
Public interviews will be held May 21, May 22, May 24 and May 25, beginning at 6 p.m. at the Brandon Central Services Office, located at 2630 McArthur Drive.
The school board is soliciting 50 participants to provide public input on the candidates, via a brief survey after the interviews. Each of the five board members will select five participants, and the remaining 25 will be chosen by lottery. The application period opened Monday and will close Friday at noon.
Isaac “Ike” Haynes
Haynes, 40, was elected as superintendent of the Jefferson Davis County School District in Prentiss in November 2007, shortly after the school district was taken over by the state for financial mismanagement, including the misappropriation of 16th Section funds.
He operated under Conservator Glenn Swann, until the district was removed from conservatorship and returned to local control in 2009.
The state Department of Education placed the district on probation in 2008-2009, after growth standards were not met and state accountability models ranked the district at risk of failing. The district remains on probation, but now is ranked successful.
Around 1,640 students attend the five schools in the Jefferson Davis County district. The Mississippi Department of Education reported a 90 percent black population and a 100 percent poverty level for the district last year.
Prior to serving as superintendent, Haynes served as principal of South Delta High School in Rolling Fork. He is a native of Prentiss.
Dr. Pamela Henson
Henson, 53, has served since 2004 as director of instructional support for the Baldwin County Board of Education in Bay Minette, Ala. The division oversees curriculum, instruction and federal programs for the district, which consists of 45 schools and more than 27,000 students.
The National Center for Education Statistics reports a district population made up of 80 percent white students and a 37 percent poverty level, based upon 2008-2009 figures.
She began her career with the district, in 1984, as a middle school science teacher, then later taught high school marine biology, before moving into administration. She was the 1997 Alabama Teacher of the Year.
She holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction and educational leadership and administration from the University of West Florida in Pensacola, Fla., a master’s degree in biology and educational leadership from the University of Mobile in Mobile, Ala., and a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Ala.
She was one of three finalists for the Auburn City Schools superintendent position in February, but was not chosen for the position. She is a native of Daphne, Ala.
Dr. Martha Liddell
Liddell, 44, has served as interim superintendent for the Columbus city schools since last May, when then-Superintendent Dr. Del Phillips resigned.
She served as the district’s assistant superintendent from 2007, until she was named interim. She was director of middle schools from 2002 to 2007 and has also served as a grant writer and test coordinator for the district.
She served two years as principal of Sale Elementary and three years as principal of Okolona Elementary in Okolona. She began her career as a teacher in Louisville in 1989.
As interim superintendent, Liddell oversees six schools and more than 4,500 students. The district population has an 89 percent black student population, with an 80 percent poverty rate. The district has been on academic watch for the past two years and was previously at risk of failing, based upon the state Department of Education’s accountability models.
Liddell earned her doctorate’s degree in education in 2000 from Mississippi State University. She received a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction and a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, also from MSU.
She is a native of Winston County.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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