STARKVILLE — Starkville School District’s Walter Gonsoulin is one of four in-state semifinalists and one of five for the vacant superintendent job at Starkville.
The Starkville schools board of trustees released Friday a list of semifinalists — the first time names have been revealed during the search — and announced its plans for interviews.
“I don’t want to say too much right now, but I will say I’m extremely thankful for the board’s interest in me,” Gonsoulin said following Friday’s meeting. “I’m really looking forward to the interview process.”
Other finalists are Bulloch County (Ga.) School District Superintendent Lewis Holloway, Union Public School District Superintendent Michael McInnis, Bay-Waveland High School Principal David A. Parker and Jackson County School District Assistant Superintendent Michael Van Winkle. All will be interviewed in executive session Jan. 28.
The board will then narrow the list for a round of interviews in a public forum Feb. 2 at the Starkville High School theater. Feb. 6 is an alternate date for the public portion, if necessary.
Gonsoulin, a finalist for the Lafayette Parrish, La., position, was the only known candidate for Starkville since the Mississippi School Boards Association began interviewing candidates in November. He confirmed his interview with MSBA shortly after. He has been assistant superintendent of operations at Starkville since 2007.
He was an assistant professor in the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s College of Education and a finalist at Bessemer, Ala.
The board narrowed the list from 22 to an undisclosed number last week. MSBA, contracted to conduct the search, contacted candidates to confirm interest in the job and conduct background checks.
It’s unclear how the board settled on the semifinalists and whether any of the 22 candidates withdrew from consideration. All of the board’s discussion about candidates has taken place in executive session.
“We have a very strong pool,” said Keith Coble, school board president. “We’re very pleased with what we saw on paper.”
Each of the five candidates has experience as an assistant superintendent. Holloway and McInnis are the only two who have held the top job at a school district.
Holloway, McInnis and Parker each earned an undergraduate or master’s from Mississippi State University. All five candidates have worked in Mississippi at some point in their careers.
The board also set the format for the public interviews, which begin at 5:30 p.m. Each candidate will deliver a 15-minute PowerPoint presentation and take questions from the board. District residents can submit questions to [email protected].
The candidates
Holloway has been an administrator for 26 years and is in his sixth year as superintendent of Bulloch County Schools. He earned a master’s degree from Mississippi State University in 1976 and later received his doctorate from the University of Southern Mississippi. He has relatives in Columbus.
“I’m excited about the prospects of returning to my home state,” Holloway said. “I’m very pleased to be a semifinalist.”
Holloway said $150 million in new school buildings have been built in Bulloch County since 2007.
“It’s a pretty remarkable feat when you consider how much budgets have dropped,” he said. “We’re pretty focused on technology, too. We have SMART boards in every class, and each teacher has their own laptop.”
McInnis has been superintendent of Union City schools since 2007. He earned his doctorate in educational leadership from Southern Miss and did post-doctoral work at MSU. He was a finalist for superintendent jobs at Brookhaven and Biloxi, both filled in 2011.
McInnis said all four schools in the district earned the rating of high performing from the state Department of Education for the 2010-11 school year. Union High School missed star status by a fraction of a point.
“I’ve analyzed their data very closely,” he said of Starkville. “They have every component and everything in place to be a star school district. I want to be a part of that team.”
Parker received his bachelor’s from MSU and doctorate from Southern Miss. He recently was a semifinalist for superintendent jobs in Hattiesburg and Meridian. Parker was assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction in Pascagoula and an administrator in Biloxi.
Parker said he accepted the principal’s job at Bay-Waveland High because it was the only job he hadn’t had in his career. He said he needed to round out his resume before becoming a superintendent.
“While I supervised high schools — two large high schools — I had not been that person to manage the politics of the high schools, all the groups, the students, the boosters,” he said. “It’s the piece of the pie that I’m really glad I didn’t miss out on.”
Van Winkle earned his doctorate at Southern Miss and has been assistant superintendent at Jackson County schools since 2008. A message left for Van Winkle wasn’t returned Friday.
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