Technically, stakeholders were asked not to endorse or denounce specific candidates for Lowndes County School District superintendent Thursday evening during a board-hosted public forum at central office. Instead, the board asked for patrons to offer what qualities they wanted to see in the district’s chief executive.
Even so, a near even division among the speakers and the crowd of about 50 who attended became abundantly clear right away. The two factions: those who wanted sitting superintendent Lynn Wright to stay and those who did not.
Wright, twice elected superintendent by Lowndes County voters, is fighting to keep his job after the Mississippi Legislature deemed all public school superintendent positions become board appointed. His last elected term expires Dec. 31, and the board has contracted with the Mississippi School Boards Association to gather applicants, of which Wright is one.
Replacing Wright, or the board even going through the process of considering it, didn’t sit well with Stan Weathers, one of seven who signed in to speak Thursday.
“The Lowndes County people voted twice for Mr. Wright,” he said. “And for y’all to change this is completely wrong. Y’all are going against the (will of the) people. … Personally, I will be totally against this board if y’all do this.”
Those who seemed to oppose Wright’s appointment did so with more subtlety. But in the case of State Rep.-elect Dana McLean — who earlier this month defeated longtime Rep. Jeff Smith, who also serves as LCSD’s board attorney — she openly advocated for change. Her comments drew applause from about half the crowd.
“I think at some point it’s time for changes, and sometimes it’s time for fresh ideas,” she said. “… Sometimes, it’s time for a new vision. I think you should support teachers who are in place … and hire the best teachers we can. And I think the new superintendent, or current superintendent, needs to support those ideals.”
The application window has closed, and board president Robert Barksdale said MSBA is vetting applicant qualifications and will present a list of finalists in the coming weeks to the board, which will then begin interviews. The board, Barksdale said, doesn’t officially know who has applied outside of Wright.
Under Wright’s leadership, the district has inched closer each year to an A accountability rating from the Mississippi Department of Education, which assigns letter grade rating to schools and districts largely based on end-of-year exam performance. But Wright’s leadership has come under fire for the district’s $13 million decline in its operating fund balance since 2014.
Comments from teachers, others
Melissa Suddith, one of three teachers who unsuccessfully appealed a Wright-recommended transfer from Caledonia to New Hope this year after she filed a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission claiming she had been harassed by school administration, did not openly support or oppose Wright in her comments. Instead, she argued for a superintendent who would be “true to the students and employees.”
“I think the next superintendent should have integrity, we should be able to trust him,” Suddith said. “… Everything we do should be about the students. They are our clients, and this is a business. Our business wouldn’t run as well as it does without good employees looking out for the good of the students.
“The superintendent should always put (students) first and employees second. We’ve had superintendents who have done that in the past, yes,” she added. “The state has decided you must appoint the next superintendent, and that person should have these characteristics.”
Still, another teacher stood up for Wright by name, saying he had done an “amazing job.”
“We need heart in our school, somebody who’s going to care about our kids. And Mr. Wright does,” said Kelly Leonard, who also has two children who attend New Hope schools. “As a parent, I want someone in this office who is going to care about my child’s education. I want somebody who is going to be cheering my child on all the way from kindergarten up (to) college. I think our superintendent we have now is fine. … Somebody who has a backbone, somebody who stands up for what he believes in, has heart, somebody who really, truly cares.”
Leonard then referred back to McLean’s comments while offering more support for Wright.
“Fresh ideas are always nice … but we need someone who will care about what these kids are going through and pick them up when they fall,” she said. “We have a current superintendent who does.”
Leonard then yielded the floor to applause from about half the crowd, as well as from board attorney Smith, who visibly clapped while sitting at the board table.
Among the other speakers Thursday were Katie McCrary, who asked the board to hire a superintendent who would prioritize stability at the district’s Career Tech Center; and Sammy White, a West Lowndes resident who asked for a leader who would ensure all the district’s schools — and its students — would be treated fairly and equally.
Barksdale: Board didn’t want ‘people bashing anybody’
Both LCSD board president Robert Barksdale and vice president Brian Clark said they had hoped more people would have signed in to speak, something the board required for attendees who wanted to publicly comment at the forum.
“I was looking for more comments from the community,” Clark said. “I think we had a pretty good crowd.”
Barksdale said he is aware of the two camps that seemed to have formed in the public on whether Wright should remain, and the board sought to be respectful of the process in spite of that division with Thursday’s meeting.
He did admit, however, the two citizens who endorsed Wright had run afoul of the board-established rules for the meeting, adding he wished he would have stopped Weathers’ and that if Leonard “had kept on” he would have stopped her short.
“I understand some people want to keep (Wright) and some people may want something different,” he said. “But we have a responsibility to do this (appointment process). … This (meeting) wasn’t something where we wanted people bashing anybody.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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