Walt Davis said he is not fazed by the declining enrollment or tenuous financial situation in the Perryville School District, where he will become superintendent July 1.
Davis, superintendent of the Hector School District, was hired March 3 by the Perryville School Board. He will replace Superintendent Ron Wilson, who is retiring. Davis was one of 29 applicants for the position.
Perryville School Board President Brian Hill said it was a unanimous decision to hire Davis.
“The board felt that he met our needs for a superintendent, which is strong leadership, good character and a strong, positive attitude,” Hill said. “Plus, he had been through a similar situation at Hector, studentwise, (loss of students), and when he was hired, they were in fiscal distress and he brought them out of it, so he had a strong history.”
The Perryville School District has 948 students in kindergarten through the 12th grade. The district’s enrollment has declined by 106 students in the past decade. Although the district is not in fiscal distress, the loss of students has negatively impacted state funding, officials have said.
Davis said he handled a similar situation in Hector.
“Yes, I am concerned about losing students — just like we’ve lost some students at Hector, as well — but those things are manageable,” he said.
Student enrollment in Hector has dropped from about 620 to 580 in the five years he has been superintendent, he said.
However, the district has made progress. The state Department of Education removed the Hector School District from the fiscal-distress list. A reduction-in-force policy was enacted in Hector to save money, and that action has been mentioned by the current superintendent as a possibility in Perryville.
“We got off fiscal distress in November, and that was the plan,” Davis said. “We’re excited there, because it’s tough. The small schools, there’s very little room for error. We made lots of cuts; we ended up shaving one bus route. Any way we could possibly save money, we did. I think it’s really important that we got the employee count manageable.”
Davis said that in Hector, the district had about 102 employees when he took over five years ago; today, the staff is “middle to high 80s.”
He said some savings were realized by not replacing people who retired; other staff members had to be laid off.
Layoffs impact more than the classroom, he said. “It affects other things, too, puts a lot of strain in other areas — maintenance, transportation, food service — and to be honest, our academic structure was hurt by reduced employees. We’ve had a lot of people step up and have a heavier class load,” he said.
Davis, whose background is in coaching, said he became the Hector girls basketball coach in a cost-saving move after the coach resigned last year. Davis led the team to the state finals this year, where Hector lost to Earle.
“It was a magical run; you just can’t imagine,” he said.
Davis said he has been meeting with Perryville employees to get a handle on the financial situation and talk about strategy before he takes over in July.
“If it’s necessary, I think those experiences [in Hector] are going to be valuable for me going forward,” Davis said. “As far as what we’re going to do, that’s going to be determined. I look forward to the challenge.”
Also, the Perryville School Board has discussed the possible need for a millage increase to pay for a high school cafetorium to be built north of the current one. The state will partner on the cost for up to 4,000 square feet, Wilson said, but the facility will be larger than that.
The Arkansas Department of Education assessed the existing Perryville cafeteria, built in the 1960s, as having zero life left in it.
Hill said the board has not made a decision about whether to seek a millage increase because the board is waiting to get approval for the project from the Arkansas Division of School Academic Facilities and Transportation, which has approved tearing down the existing cafeteria. The project may also include a safe room.
Davis said the project is a good one. “There’s nothing more important than feeding kids and keeping them safe, so that part will be good,” Davis said.
He joked that it was predetermined that he would become an educator. He grew up in Humphrey, where his father was superintendent of schools and his mother taught third grade.
“Born in a family of educators, I didn’t have a choice,” he said, laughing.
“I had a good high school basketball career, and I wanted to coach,” he said. Davis went to Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, planning to walk on to the basketball team, but “I just decided I wanted to go to school.”
Math was his strength, and he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the subject and served as a graduate assistant in math at Tech.
He planned to get his educational doctorate and teach math in college, “but I got the coaching bug,” he said. He was hired in the Lincoln School District in Washington County, where he taught math and volunteered to coach girls and boys basketball as an assistant his first year. He became the girls junior high basketball coach, and later, the girls high school basketball coach.
Davis left Lincoln to be the boys basketball coach and a math teacher in Hector, where he worked for six years.
“We made the state finals in 2002, and Poyen beat us on a buzzer shot in overtime,” he said.
He had brief basketball-coaching stints at Dardanelle and Dover before going to Harmony Grove as a boys basketball coach. He said former Harmony Grove High School Principal Bill Gibbs was “a great man, great mentor.” Davis said Gibbs helped groom him to become an administrator, and when Gibbs was diagnosed with cancer, Davis said he filled in for the principal. When Gibbs died, Davis was promoted to the position.
“He was so instrumental. Boy, I learned so much in a short period of time. I owe a lot to him, and I owe a lot to Mr. [Dan] Henley, [the superintendent],” Davis said.
Davis served as Harmony Grove High School principal for five years before he was hired in 2010 as principal of Hector High School.
He said his wife, Tina, is a native of Witt Springs.
“It was closer to home for my wife and her family, and certainly, Hector was a great experience for me,” Davis said. He said former superintendent Karen Walters took another position, and he became superintendent.
Davis said he has had a positive impression of Perryville through the years.
“That’s another very proud small community — a little bit bigger situation with resources that are exciting,” he said. “I had familiarity with Perryville because I had jobs at Dardanelle, Dover, and even Harmony Grove was in their league at times. I’ve always thought that [Perryville] was a very nice community; I think there’s a lot of potential there. They’ve got a very good school system,” he said.
Davis said his goal for Perryville is the same as in any school district where he
has worked.
“It’s the same everywhere you go — you want to make it the very best school system it can possibly be. You assess all areas of the school and see what can be improved on, and put your employees in a position to be successful,” he said. “You want to do what’s best for kids. The reason we’re in education is creating the very best scenarios for students you can.”
His annual salary will be $99,806, which includes a housing allowance, he said.
Davis said he and his wife will move to Perryville, and the district is helping with one-time moving fees, as well.
“I’m very excited about the move,” he said. “I just have a real good feeling about a fit there, as far as my strengths.”
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.