LITTLE ROCK — The Little Rock School Board is embarking on a search for a superintendent to oversee the operation of the 25,000-student district, the state’s largest.
At the end of a meeting Thursday in which the board approved raises and increased insurance benefits for the 3,840 district employees, the board voted 6-0 to begin the process of filling the chief executive’s position, a job held by Morris Holmes since January 2011. Holmes’ contract with the district is due to expire June 30.
The board authorized its president, Dianne Curry, to contact the McPherson & Jacobson executive recruitment and development search firm of Omaha, Neb., “to build on the work” that the company did in a superintendent search for the district in 2011.
Curry is to report to her board colleagues at a special Nov. 26 meeting on McPherson & Jacobson’s interest in contracting with the district to do a new search.
Board member Jody Carreiro made the motion to begin the search. Board member Michael Nellums seconded the motion.
Carreiro said that Holmes would be eligible to apply for the job that the board wants to have filled by the end of the 2012-13 school year.
“It’s this board’s feeling that we made a promise to the community a couple years ago to go through this process,” Carreiro said. “We certainly appreciate everything Dr. Holmes has done. Of course, if he puts in an application, it will be looked at just like everyone else’s.”
In an interview Thursday, Holmes, 73, declined to say whether he would seek to retain the position.
“I have the option to apply,” he said.
Holmes was initially hired by the board in January 2011 as an interim superintendent to succeed Linda Watson, whose contract with the board was due to expire in June 2011.
The board sought an interim leader in order to make a clean break with Watson before seeking her replacement.
Holmes, a former superintendent in New Orleans and once the principal of Little Rock Central High, agreed upfront that he would not be an applicant for the permanent job.
The board hired the McPherson firm to do the search. The company conducted community meetings to determine the characteristics desired in a superintendent and produced a slate of candidates. For different reasons, all but one candidate who did not have superintendent experience dropped out of consideration.
In a surprise move, the board hired Holmes to fill the position for two years. Holmes’ resulting contract provides an annual salary of $215,000 and an additional $20,000-a-year payment to an annuity fund.
Carreiro said after making his motion Thursday that McPherson & Jacobson are being contacted because of the background work they have already done in regard to meeting with community groups. In this new search, the district would rely on the company to recruit and vet candidates and assist the board with the applicant interviews.
In undertaking the search, the Little Rock board is following on the heels of the North Little Rock School Board, which hired McPherson & Jacobson earlier this year to assist in finding a replacement for Superintendent Ken Kirspel, who has said he will leave the job in June. The application deadline for the North Little Rock job is in December.
Earlier Thursday, the Little Rock board unanimously approved a compensation package for employees that will provide certified staff, including teachers, with a 1.75 percent annual salary increase and a 2 percent annual salary increase for support staff.
The benefits plan — now ratified by the School Board and the members of the Little Rock Education Association — also increases the district contribution to the monthly health insurance premiums for employees who participate in the insurance program. The association is the union that represents teachers and support-service employees.
The district’s insurance benefit contribution will increase $39.34 a month per participating employee, raising the total district contribution from $318.36 to $357.70 per participating employee.
The starting salary for a Little Rock district teacher with a bachelor’s degree and no experience will be $34,206, as a result of the new pay plan and the top salary for a teacher will be $68,635, not counting stipends that are paid for extra duties such as coaching and activity sponsorships.
The total compensation package is expected to cost the district about $5.6 million
The across-the-board raise is in addition to the “step” increase that eligible teachers and other employees received earlier this school year for their additional year of teaching experience.
However, the district’s longest-tenured employees — those at the top of their salary schedules — are ineligible for the step increases, which range between 2 percent and 3 percent.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 11/16/2012