5 vie to lead Jacksonville School District

Five people have applied to succeed Tony Wood next summer as superintendent in the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District, the state's newest school system.

The applicants include Bryan Duffie, who oversees support services as one of two assistant superintendents in the fledgling school system, which is in its first year of independent operation. Duffie, hired in March, had been superintendent of the Westside Consolidated School District in Jonesboro since 2010. He also had been a principal in that district.

Others who submitted applications by the midnight Friday deadline are:

• Robert Ross, superintendent of the Mansfield School District.

• Angela Olsen, a former assistant superintendent in the North Little Rock School District and now an office manager for a real estate company in Harrison.

• Michael Booker, a principal for a Corrections Corp. of America facility in Whiteville, Tenn. Corrections Corp. is a full-service prison, jail and detention management company.

• Timm MacDonald, who is a former administrator at West Adams Preparatory High in Los Angeles but moved to Arkansas in July and is not employed.

The Jacksonville/North Pulaski School Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the district's headquarters, 1414 W. Main St., in Jacksonville, to review and screen the applications. The board could also decide to proceed to the selection of finalists from the pool of applicants and set up an interview schedule.

Wood, 66, announced earlier this month that he will resign from the district he's headed since July 1, 2014, at the conclusion of this school year in June. He is a former Arkansas commissioner of education and deputy commissioner and, prior to work in the Arkansas Department of Education, he was a longtime superintendent in the Searcy School District, where he still resides.

The change in the leadership of the 3,927-student Jacksonville/North Pulaski district comes after two years of planning and in the midst of the first year of operating independently of the Pulaski County Special district.

The new district won voter approval of a 7.6 mill-tax increase in February and is in the early stages of constructing a new Jacksonville High School that will open in August 2019 and a new elementary school that will open in August 2018. The district is also making long-term plans for replacing other elementary campuses.

The district's school board is conducting the search for a new superintendent with help from Wood.

Advertising for the job called for a minimum of five years of experience as a superintendent. It also says that a doctorate degree is preferred.

Bobby G. Lester of Jacksonville is a retired educator who served as the superintendent of the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District for about six months once the district was created but before Wood was hired on more permanent basis.

Lester, who is taking a break after working several years as a superintendent search-firm consultant, said Friday that a successful candidate for the Jacksonville/North Pulaski superintendent's job will need a wide range of qualities and skills.

"I would think that the person would need a strong background in finance and in building and construction because all of that will be going on," Lester said. "Obviously, the district needs a person who stands out as an instructional leader ... it needs to be someone who is totally interested in instruction. We want someone that teachers respect as an instructional leader. They need to have someone who has a strong personality and can work with people well, not only with the teachers and students but also with the public."

Lester also said the successful applicant needs to be able to work with state lawmakers and push for state funding for the school construction in the district.

"Trying to wrap everything up into one sweet package is kind of hard sometimes," he said, " but that is what they are going to need in Jacksonville."

Duffie, one of the applicants, was hired by the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district in March to oversee support services. He had been superintendent of the Westside Consolidated School District in Jonesboro since 2010. He also had been a principal in that district.

Booker is described on a Linkedin.com website as a former president of City University Schools -- a charter school system -- in Memphis; a former principal in the Jackson-Madison County, Tenn., School District; and a former director of off-campus education at Volunteer State Community College. He worked for more than 20 years in the metropolitan Nashville, Tenn., public schools as a teacher, coordinator of an alternative school and in the administration of different campuses.

Booker has a bachelor's degree in biology/chemistry from Lane College, a master's degree from Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, and a doctorate in educational administration and supervision from Tennessee State University, also in Nashville.

MacDonald is a former assistant principal at various high schools in Los Angeles, but most recently worked in the West Contra County Unified School District's Pinole Valley High, according to his Linkedin.com page. He also operated his own training company for improving efficiency and staff relations in business and industry.

Olsen, according to news articles and online state documents, has worked in various Arkansas school districts, including East End School District and North Little Rock, as an educator and administrator. She also has worked for the Arkansas Department of Education and The Learning Institute in Hot Springs, a company that provided subject tests for students.

She has been an applicant for superintendent jobs in Omaha and Yellville-Summit in recent years.

Ross has been superintendent of the Mansfield district since 2011 and was the chief executive of two districts in Texas prior to that -- Sulphur Bluff Independent School District in Sulphur Bluff, Texas, from 2008 to 2011; and the Olfen Independent School District in Rowena, Texas, for the 2007-08 school year. He also has experience as a principal and assistant principal in different Texas systems dating back to 1989.

He has a bachelor's degree from East Texas State University in Commerce, Texas, and a master's degree in education from Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas. He has been a candidate for superintendent jobs in Vilonia and Fayetteville in recent years.

Metro on 11/21/2016

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