GREENLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS : State to announce superintendent today
Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/67436/
The Arkansas Department of Education will name a new superintendent for the Greenland school district today, the department announced Wednesday afternoon.
The department has called a news conference at 11 a. m. on the school grounds along U. S. 71 to introduce the state-appointed administrator. Department officials, including Education Commissioner Ken James, are expected to travel to the district for the announcement.
A press release stated the announcement would be held at the administration building, which is a stone structure south of the middle school.
The Arkansas State Board of Education voted July 14 to take control of the district for the foreseeable future due to financial shortcomings, including a projected budget shortfall for 2008-09. The board opted for direct control of the district rather than annexing it to an adjoining system.
As part of the takeover, the Greenland school board has been dismissed. The new administrator will have control over all district business and will be supervised directly by the state department instead of a local school board.
Former Greenland Board of Education President Bill Groom said he looks forward to meeting the state-appointed superintendent.
“ We’ll know who we’re going to be working with and make ourselves available to he or she, ” he said. “ If it took them a while to find the right person, that’s fine by me. I have no official capacity, but I do appreciate Dr. James taking the time to come up here. ”
Department spokesman Julie Thompson said they were not ready to say who the new administrator will be.
The department has contacted some retired area school super intendents about the position.
Former West Fork superintendent and Boston Mountain Education Cooperative Director John Selph confirmed that James had called him to see if he was interested in the job, but Selph said he told James he did not want the job.
Retired Pea Ridge and Bentonville Superintendent Marvin Higginbottom said he had “ no comment ” when asked Monday if state officials had contacted him about the job.
Higginbottom, who lives in Holiday Island, spent the past school year as interim superintendent of Berryville, helping that district recover from the controversial departure of its previous superintendent.
He was also interviewed last month to be the Prairie Grove superintendent on an interim basis, but the Prairie Grove board decided to hire Fayetteville Associate Superintendent Randy Willison.