FAYETTEVILLE -- Fayetteville School Board President Tim Hudson said he anticipates the first round of interviews for superintendent will conclude Saturday.
All seven members of the School Board have met three times within the past week to interview candidates. Three more interviews are set.
The School Board is scheduled to interview Donnie Whitten, superintendent for Arkadelphia Public Schools, at 5 p.m. today. C.J. Huff, former superintendent of Joplin schools in Missouri, will meet with the board at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. An interview will follow with Jared Cleveland, deputy superintendent for the Springdale School District, at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
The School Board already has interviewed Kim Garrett, Fayetteville's associate superintendent for secondary education; Jeff Collum, Benton superintendent; and Matt Wendt, superintendent of the Community Unit School District 308 in Oswego, Ill.
Board members will discuss all of the candidates when they meet Saturday at the Adams Leadership Center, 1000 W. Bulldog Blvd., where all interviews have taken place, Hudson said.
The interviews are held in executive session, meaning they are not open to the public.
"If there's a quick solid strong consensus about where we are, and there's one or two people we want to bring back for a daylong opportunity in the district, I'll be trying to line that up in the next week or so," Hudson said.
The board is searching for a superintendent to succeed Paul Hewitt, who plans to retire at the end of the school year. The board advertised a negotiable, annual salary of $200,000. The School Board is coordinating the search, with Hudson acting as the primary contact for applicants.
Hudson said he plans to name the finalists invited for daylong interviews once they agree to come.
State law gives school boards the responsibility of hiring a superintendent. The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act provides for an open hiring process for the position. The law requires school boards to vote in public on any decision reached in a discussion during an executive session. Also, applications are public records the moment they are submitted.
Interviews with Collum, Wendt and Whitten were scheduled before they submitted applications. Hudson did not disclose their names until after receiving their resumes and said he was cautious because the candidates were employed by other school boards.
The search in Fayetteville has generated applications from 32 candidates, and Hudson said he has not turned any applicants away.
Candidates have to be ready for a public interview process, said Wendt, the Illinois superintendent.
"I'm a supporter and a believer in transparency," said Wendt, who has been a superintendent or assistant superintendent for four school systems in three states. "We want people to know what the school system is doing, what we're discussing. We always want stakeholders to feel they have a voice in the process."
Wendt also thinks the need for transparency must be balanced with the reasons a community elects a school board. School boards have discretion to determine when information becomes public, he said, adding that when communities disagree with those decisions, they can vote to change the school board.
Wendt said he appreciated the Fayetteville School Board's approach in respecting candidates' relationships with their school boards. He submitted his application Friday, the same day Hudson identified him as a candidate the School Board had scheduled to interview Monday.
Wendt said he was interested in the position in Fayetteville because it would put him closer to family members, because of the potential for a collaborative partnership with the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and because of his interest in focusing on academics.
Candidates weigh the risks to their current jobs when they apply for a superintendent post, Cleveland said. He said he enjoys working in Springdale, but had conversations with several people from around the state and region that convinced him he should be an applicant for Fayetteville. He applied Jan. 13.
"You have to be prepared not to get it and what that might be like for you in your home district," he said. "You don't want to alienate people at your home district."
Cleveland said he did not have an issue with the School Board scheduling interviews with some candidates before they submitted a formal application. He said that when he was assistant commissioner of finance for the Arkansas Department of Education, he encouraged boards across the state to try to recruit leaders who might make a good fit. A school board approaching someone about a position shouldn't be a matter of public record because the person might not be interested, he said.
"If a board wants to go after someone, they have every right to do that even if that person hasn't applied," Cleveland said.
State Desk on 01/20/2016