The Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District's interim School Board voted Monday night to interview two of the 12 applicants for the job of superintendent for the newly created district.
The board will interview former Arkansas Education Commissioner Tony Wood on April 13 and follow that up with an interview of Little Rock School District Deputy Superintendent Marvin Burton on April 15.
A special meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. April 16, at which time the board will decide its next step, which could be a selection of a superintendent to succeed interim Superintendent Bobby Lester.
Lester took the job late last year to help with the immediate planning for the new district, which will serve about 4,000 students when it detaches from the larger Pulaski County Special School District, probably by July 1, 2016.
Kieth Williams, a local consultant for the McPherson & Jacobson LLC of Omaha, Neb., which was hired to conduct the search, told the School Board that Wood, a veteran superintendent in addition to his leadership role at the state agency, is the only applicant of the 12 to meet all the criteria set by the board earlier this year.
"When we started this search, you probably had the most comprehensive set of criteria that I've seen in the years I've been working as a search consultant," Williams said. "By that, I mean you included just about every area of the superintendency, and very few individuals would have that skill set."
Williams said the criteria were "almost frightening" to possible applicants. Also intimidating was the fact that the district is new and involves many "unknowns." As a result, the district attracted fewer applicants than the consultants desired, he said.
While the people who did apply are high-performing school leaders, Williams said Wood best meets the requirements for the job because of his more than 30 years of experience as a superintendent. Wood served in that role in what is now the Riverview and Searcy school districts plus a year as deputy superintendent in the Little Rock School District and four years as deputy commissioner at the Arkansas Department of Education.
Wood, 64, recently resumed a deputy commissioner's job at the state agency after serving nine months as commissioner. He was then-Gov. Mike Beebe's choice to become commissioner in July after Commissioner Tom Kimbrell resigned. The new governor, Asa Hutchinson, nominated Johnny Key to be commissioner, and Key took the position March 26.
The Jacksonville/North Pulaski board chose to interview both Wood and Burton after meeting in a private session for about an hour to review all the applicants.
Burton, 50, the deputy superintendent in the Little Rock district, is a native of West Memphis but has been a high school science teacher, middle school and high school principal, and associate superintendent in the Little Rock School District, the state's largest district.
He was the Little Rock district's interim superintendent for about four months, between the March 2013 resignation of Superintendent Morris Holmes and the July 2013 arrival of Dexter Suggs.
Suggs announced earlier Monday that the deputy superintendent's position held by Burton and some 62 other central office positions in the Little Rock system are being eliminated for the coming 2015-16 school year and replaced with as many as six reconfigured positions as a way to cut costs in the district.
Jacksonville/North Pulaski board members were pleased Monday about their prospects for a new leader.
"We are a young district with a lot of risk, and some potential candidates probably didn't apply because of that," board President Daniel Gray said after the meeting.
"We are blessed to have a couple of great candidates to be able to choose from," he said.
The Jacksonville/North Pulaski district was established in November by order of the Arkansas Board of Education after 95 percent of Jacksonville-area voters in the September school election voted for a new system. The new district remains a part of the Pulaski County Special School District while planning for the detachment takes place.
Metro on 04/07/2015