Derek Scott, the executive director of operations in the Pulaski County Special School District since 2010, will resign effective Sept. 15.
In his letter last week to interim Superintendent Janice Warren, Scott said he is anticipating being called to Air Force Reserve duty for periods of two to six months at a time when the 12,000-student district is in the midst of multiple building projects. Scott is the manager of those projects.
"With the volume of active workload and the responsibility level of the position, I'm led to resign in order for the District to proceed with finding a replacement soonest," Scott wrote to Warren.
Scott did not return a message left on his cellphone about the resignation and the military duty.
The resignation comes at a time when the school district -- in its first year of operating with an elected school board after five years of state control -- is building both a new Mills High School and a new Robinson Middle School and is in the beginning stages of dramatically expanding the Sylvan Hills High School campus. The district also has plans to relocate the existing Fuller Middle School to what is the current Mills High building.
The construction of a new Mills and the relocation of Fuller Middle, in particular, are part of the district's efforts to equalize the condition of school buildings in the district, a prerequisite to attaining unitary status in a long-running federal school desegregation lawsuit.
Attorneys for the Pulaski County Special district and the black students known as the Joshua intervenors in the lawsuit are scheduled to meet with U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. about progress toward unitary status at 1:30 p.m. Friday.
Scott's resignation also comes in the wake of the School Board's vote in July to fire then-Superintendent Jerry Guess and the Allen P. Roberts law firm that represented the district in the federal school desegregation lawsuit since 2011. Warren has replaced Guess, and Sam Jones of the Mitchell Williams law firm has resumed the lead counsel position he held for the district in the case before the hiring of the Roberts firm.
School Board members said they had lost confidence in the Roberts firm in light of what they described as "backroom" and "side" deals in the desegregation lawsuit and in administrative personnel matters of which board members were not initially aware of and did not have input. Guess defended the law firm.
Scott's annual salary is $137,738.
Metro on 09/05/2017