STARKVILLE — The Starkville School District Board of Trustees will discuss target dates for interviews for its next superintendent during tonight’s board meeting at 6 p.m.
The Mississippi School Boards Association, which is assisting the SSD in its search, finished accepting applications last week and trimmed the list of applicants to 23 from eight different states. The MSBA is currently in the process of checking references, after which they’ll begin interviewing applicants at the MSBA offices in Clinton.
From there, the MSBA will provide a report to the SSD board — without making a recommendation — and the board will decide who and how many applicants to interview.
MSBA will reopen the search if the board doesn’t get a suitable candidate from the group.
SSD Board President Keith Coble said the board could receive the MSBA’s report as early as December, but won’t know any of the names on the MSBA’s list until then.
“We haven’t set a target date for when we want to have someone in place or when we want to conduct interviews, but it’s time to start talking about the way forward,” Coble said. “We have tried to move forward quickly, but not hurriedly with this hire. We don’t want to make any mistakes.”
MSBA consultant Dr. Harold Fisher, in charge of Starkville’s search, didn’t reveal specific information about the 23 candidates or if any are SSD employees. As part of the agreement to become interim superintendent, Assistant Superintendent Beth Sewell could not apply for the position. Additionally, the MSBA will not share applicant information with individual members of the board.
Fisher was hesitant Monday to set a timeframe for when the MSBA will present its report to the district, noting the difficulty of contacting references and scheduling interviews during the holidays. Also, school boards from around the state will meet in Jackson next week for their annual leadership conference.
“It’ll also depend on the schedule of board members and (Executive Director Dr. Michael) Waldrop,” Fisher said. “My guess is that it would be into December or after.”
The MSBA is currently conducting superintendent searches for the school districts of Tupelo, Columbus, Starkville, Oxford and Natchez. Fisher said the MSBA has concluded stakeholder meetings for all five districts. Each district has a different opening and closing date, so checking references and conducting interviews won’t hold back any district’s search, despite the five districts ranking among the largest in the state.
A few districts have yet to finalize their list of criteria; Starkville finalized its list at its September meeting. Among the notable changes from its last search was candidates must have a doctorate.
Fisher said some of the districts have informed him that they don’t plan to conduct their own interviews until after Jan. 31, well after Christmas break. Starkville, however, isn’t one of them.
With multiple districts of similar size searching for a new superintendent, Fisher admits there are some candidates who have applied for multiple positions. The overlap, though, won’t complicate Starkville’s search.
“We’ve done about 34 of these searches, and almost every year there are multiple searches going on,” Fisher said. “In some instances, you’ll have a person try for more than one positions if they feel they’re qualified, but it hasn’t been a problem thus far. Most candidates are quite careful.”
SSD is looking to replace Judy Couey, who resigned in April, Couey became superintendent of the district in July 2008. She came to the district as assistant superintendent in June 2006.
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