LITTLE ROCK — A committee of city leaders and parents appointed to act as a sounding board on finalists for Little Rock School District superintendent will meet today to prepare for interviewing finalists later this month.
Little Rock City Manager Bruce Moore, civil-rights attorney John Walker and former Little Rock School Board member Baker Kurrus are among the 12 members of the new committee appointed by School Board President Dianne Curry, in part with nominees from the other six members of the School Board.
“I made sure that we have a good balance of people,” she said, noting that the committee includes a pastor,a government leader and a Hispanic person, as well as retired educators.
The School Board, which sets policy for the 25,000-student district - the state’s largest - is seeking a superintendent to replace Morris Holmes, whose contract with the district expires June 30.
Nine candidates from nine states, including one from Arkansas, applied for the job by the deadline last month.
Representatives of McPherson & Jacobson, executive recruiters of Omaha, Neb., are scheduled to meet with the School Board on Monday to recommend finalists they believe can best provide what the board and community has said it desires in the district and its leader. The School Board is planning to interview finalists the week of Feb. 25.
The board won’t go empty-handed into those closed interviews or its deliberation on a final selection.
The advisory committee’s job is to interview each finalist over a luncheon. Its members will then submit to the School Board their individual assessments of each finalist, Curry said. The committee members will use unsigned assessment forms developed by the search firm and place them into sealed envelopes for the board to open.
Curry said the committee’s luncheon interviews will be open to the public and the assessments will be saved for public review after the board opens the envelopes.
“It should be open,” Curry said of the process. “We don’t have anything to hide.
I’m trying to make sure this is a clean process.”
Curry described the process after talking with the consulting firm Monday and attempting unsuccessfully to reach an attorney for the district regarding the assessment forms.
The advisory committee members will give individual feedback and will not rate the candidates or rank them in any order of preference, Curry said. The committee will be guided by the consulting firm, which has used a similar process in other cities.
Besides Moore, other committee members appointed by Curry from the community are Phillip L. Pointer, the senior pastor of the St.Mark Baptist Church and the father of three children; Marian Lacey, a retired Little Rock School District principal and assistant superintendent; Francennett Herrera, liaison for Gov. Mike Beebe and student at the Clinton School of Public Service; and Patty Barker, a former president of the Little Rock Parent-Teacher Association Council.
Committee members nominated by school board members are Nannette Green, nominated by Norma Johnson; Walker, nominated by Michael Nellums; retired Central High teacher Annice Steadman, nominated by Leslie Fisken; parent Fran Carter, nominated by Greg Adams; former School Board member Baker Kurrus, nominated by Jody Carreiro, Michael Sanders, nominated by Tommy Branch Jr.; and parent Darryl Swinton, selected by Curry from the southwest part of Little Rock where she lives.
Curry on Monday did not know the job and school affiliations for all of the nominees selected by her board colleagues. And not all of the board members responded to e-mail messages Monday asking about their selections.
In a phone interview, Adams described Carter, whom he nominated, and her husband as parents of an elementary school child. He said the Carters have in recent years actively encouraged other parents to consider district schools.
“They have shown themselves to be very thoughtful and very committed to the public school system,” Adams said. “I’ve been very impressed with her.”
Curry did not know Monday whether Walker, who is a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives that is currently in session and who recently had surgery, would be able to participate on the committee or whether a designee might be assigned.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/12/2013