Keith Williams

Bald Knob school leader aims for improvement

Keith Williams is the superintendent for Bald Knob Public Schools. He was recently named president of the Economics Arkansas Board of Directors. Being involved is nothing new for Williams, who has had his hand in most levels of education through the years.
Keith Williams is the superintendent for Bald Knob Public Schools. He was recently named president of the Economics Arkansas Board of Directors. Being involved is nothing new for Williams, who has had his hand in most levels of education through the years.

Name a district superintendent in Arkansas, and chances are Keith Williams knows the person.

Over the years, he’s been involved in nearly every level of education in the state, from student to teacher to coach to administrator to state Department of Education staff member and more.

Finishing his first year as superintendent of Bald Knob Public Schools, Williams is looking over the checklist he made for himself and the district when he was brought on board. Of the two-page list, Williams said about one page is complete. He said he hopes to finish as much as he can of the second before the end of his three-year stint.

Taking the job was a somewhat unusual move for Williams, who already had semiretired from public-school life when the opportunity came to get involved again with the Bald Knob School District.

Born and raised in nearby Russell, Williams attended school in Bald Knob from the seventh grade through graduation. His parents, who raised the family on a farm, never went past the seventh grade. But they wanted more for their children and preached the value of a good education, encouraging Williams to give college a try.

“Education has been my out and my way of moving on to much bigger things,” Williams said.

When Williams returned as superintendent last year to the schools he once attended, his to-do list quickly piled up. Many of the items related to finance and budgets, a topic critical to the district that was taken over by the state in 2007, because it was considered to be in fiscal distress. Staffing was one of the first things on Williams’ agenda.

“Overstaffing is a condition that can often lead to financial downfall in a district,” Williams said.

Williams and the school board helped address the problem by offering a retirement incentive to teachers; 10 accepted. Four of those positions were filled while six were “absorbed.” With a low student/teacher ratio in many of the elementary school classes, Williams said, the district was able to reduce the number of teachers per grade and still maintain a ratio below state standards.

Working with school finance became a passion for Williams as he worked his way through school. After graduating Bald Knob High School, Williams attended Harding University on a football scholarship. Though he started in pre-pharmacy, he graduated with degrees in biology and physical education and headed straight into a job teaching health and coaching football at Beebe in the late ’60s. From there, he went on to teach and coach in Bald Knob. In all, Williams coached six years before he realized it wasn’t for him.

“I lost too many ball games,” Williams said with a laugh.

But teaching was a good fit. To Williams, teaching was like playing. A teacher at Bald Knob, Jeff Smith, had told Williams that once he found a job that he liked more than he liked playing as a child, do that job. And so he did.

Williams only wavered in his decision to be an educator once. In the early ’80s, he left teaching to farm and sell insurance. But in 1986, he had a change of heart.

“It was 11 at night and I was walking the rice field checking for levee breaks,” Williams said. “It was hot and humid and I thought, ‘There’s gotta be something better than this.’”

Williams said once he started teaching again, he never looked back.

After he earned his bachelor’s degree, Williams had gone straight into a master’s program at Harding. He earned his doctorate at Memphis State University, now the University of Memphis, in 1993.

“I’ve been very, very happy with the opportunities that have been afforded to me over the years,” Williams said.

After working at the Department of Education, Williams started a string of superintendent positions that included districts in Cross County and Beebe.

Once he left the Beebe School District in 2005 to work at Harding University, he thought he was done working as a superintendent. He had begun consulting work for a firm designed to assist school boards in finding superintendents. He never thought the work would lead to another job.

When Bald Knob started its superintendent search a few years later, he helped find an interim. But when it came time to find their next full-time superintendent, the board didn’t want his advice — they wanted Williams.

“We gave it a lot of thought,” Williams said. His son, Jarrod, now superintendent of the Bauxite School District, encouraged him to take the job.

“I said I could only come in for a three-year stint, and I have a two-page list of improvements,” Williams said.

Though he’s only been on the job a year, Williams has helped oversee the demolition of several old buildings on the district’s campus, with new buildings, renovations and landscaping projects constantly starting.

When Williams’ time with the district comes to an end in 2015, it will likely be his last job in a public school district, he said. Though he will continue his consulting work and his part-time teaching at Harding, he’s ready to return to semiretirement.

“My work is my recreation right now,” Williams said. “I love what I do, but I need to adjust that.”

Staff writer Emily Van Zandt can be reached at (501) 399-3688 or evanzandt@arkansasonline.com.

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