The search is on for a new superintendent at the Bryant School District after the School Board ousted former chief Randy Rutherford, and candidates include the Arkansas education commissioner.
As of Friday, the district has received five applications for the job position. The application period began April 8 and was scheduled to end Sunday, but it may remain open until the position is filled.
The School Board unanimously agreed to allow Rutherford to “immediately submit his resignation” to be dated June 30. The School Board hasn’t said why Rutherford was parting with the district, calling it a “personnel matter.” District officials have refused numerous requests under the state’s Freedom of Information Act for documents detailing those reasons.
The School Board suspended Rutherford, 52, on March 10 and recommended his termination. Rutherford didn’t appeal the suspension, and he and the School Board reached a separation agreement April 3.
Rutherford’s salary was $155,000.
The last time the district searched for a superintendent was in 2010, before it hired Rutherford. At that time, the district contracted McPherson & Jacobson LLC, an Omaha, Neb.-based recruiting firm, for the search after posting the job for about a month.
The School Board brought in five candidates to interview over the course of a week in March, President Rhonda Sanders said.
“We did have the luxury of a longer time period to look,” she said. Then-Superintendent Richard Abernathy “let us know he was leaving more [toward the] middle of his term, so we had two or three months to do the search and to use a consultant.”
Abernathy left the district to become the executive director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators.
This time around, the School Board and administrators are moving “as quickly as possible” to find “the best quality candidate” for that position, district spokesman Devin Sherrill said. According to the job posting on the state Educational Administrators Association website, the proposed starting date for the new superintendent is July 1.
The district also has posted the job with the Arkansas School Boards Association and on district websites. The district is looking for candidates with a minimum of 12 years experience, with a minimum of three years experience as a public school superintendent, according to the posting. A doctorate degree is preferred.
The five candidates who applied so far are Bradley Gist, 47, of Benton; Rhonda Dickey, 58, of Bismarck; Timothy Harris, age unknown, of Benton Harbor, Mich.; James Willison Sr., 56, of Batesville; and Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell, 52, of Cabot.
Of the candidates, only three - Harris, Willison and Kimbrell - have superintendent experience.
Willison is the superintendent at the Batesville School District and has worked as superintendent at the Prairie Grove School District, according to his resume.
Harris, who is now working to earn his doctorate degree in educational leadership at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., worked in a role similar to superintendent between September 2012 and May for a Michigan charter school, Three Oaks Academy, according to his resume.
Kimbrell served as superintendent for the North Little Rock School District from July 2004 to June 2005 and was previously superintendent in Paragould.
He also has led the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators.
The other two candidates hold administrative positions in other districts. Gist is the principal at Central Arkansas Christian School in North Little Rock, and Dickey works as the administrative director of federal programs and grant writing.
Bryant residents let the School Board know what they liked and wanted in a superintendent during the last search, Sanders said.
“I think they clearly want someone who will communicate well with the community, who has high expectations for education, that’s going to know the curriculum well,” she said. “Someone able to develop leadership within the school.”
The new superintendent would come at a time when the district is looking for ways to complete upgrades as the student population grows. Residents voted down a proposed millage that would have helped finance those upgrades in February.
The district is also facing an Arkansas State Police criminal investigation into its finances. The investigation follows a state audit that found irregularities in the district’s financial reports, including the unauthorized opening of a credit card and the improper increase of salaries for at least two employees.
The district will retain interim Superintendent Fred Dawson until a new leader is in place.
“I think anyone in the school world knows when you hit the spring and move to July 1, people are going to be settled by mid-May,” Sanders said.
When asked whether that time frame concerned her, Sanders said, “I think Bryant is a good school district. We’re going to maintain our quality achieving excellence.”
Sanders said she was confident the School Board would find the right fit.
“This can be a good time of the year,” Sanders said.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 04/21/2014