The superintendent of the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District will ask the district's School Board on Monday to approve his selection of candidates for six principal positions and two district jobs.
Superintendent Tony Wood recommends LaGail Biggs, a first-year principal of J.A. Fair High School in the Little Rock School District, for the job of principal of Jacksonville High School, effective July 1.
Recommended for elementary school principal jobs in the new district -- which is being carved out of the Pulaski County Special School District and will operate on its own starting July 1 -- are Gary Beck, Myeisha Haywood, Jamie Reed, Angela Stewart and Janice Walker.
The elementary principal candidates have not been assigned to specific campuses in the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district. However, four of the five recommended candidates are currently Pulaski County Special district principals assigned to schools that will be part of the new district.
Beck is currently principal of Bayou Meto Elementary, a school in the new district. Haywood is currently principal at Murrell Taylor Elementary in the new district. Stewart is the current principal at the district's Arnold Drive Elementary. Walker is principal at the district's Warren Dupree Elementary.
The fifth candidate, Reed, is an assistant principal at Baker Elementary in the Pulaski County Special district.
The new district has one additional elementary school principal vacancy to fill after a candidate selected for the position declined a job offer, said Phyllis Stewart, the new district's chief of staff. The position will be re-advertised, Stewart said.
The new district has a total of six elementary schools, a middle school and a high school. Mike Hudgeons was selected earlier to remain as the Jacksonville Middle School principal.
Before being named principal at Fair High School, Biggs -- who resides in Jacksonville -- was assistant principal at the campus for two years. Jeremy Owoh, who was the principal at that time, is now the assistant superintendent in the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski district.
Biggs also is a former assistant principal at Little Rock's Henderson Middle School. She was a teacher for more than 12 years at Little Rock's Parkview High School and she taught elementary school for 10 years in Texas.
Wood is also recommending candidates for the Jacksonville/North Pulaski positions of district treasurer and director of technology.
Tonya Weaver, who was district treasurer for the Lonoke School District since 1998, is Wood's choice for the same job in Jacksonville/North Pulaski.
If approved by the district's School Board at its special meeting Monday, Weaver would start work in the new district on Feb. 3.
Johnny Haley, the director of technology at Academics Plus Charter School in Maumelle, is the recommended candidate for the director of technology job. If approved, he would start work in the new district on Feb. 15.
He previously worked for 12 years for Vestcom, and before that, Windsor Door. He retired from the U.S. Air Force after 22 years of service.
The School Board's special meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. at the Jacksonville Police Department's training room, 400 Marshall Road in Jacksonville.
Also on the agenda is a discussion about the possible outsourcing of some support services for the new district.
Metro on 01/23/2016