Watson Chapel superintendent to leave June 30
Jerry Guess will step down as Watson Chapel School District superintendent when his contract ends June 30.
Guess made the announcement toward the end of Monday’s district board meeting, and board members voted to accept the resignation — and expressed their reluctance while commending Guess’ work over the past three years at the helm. Board member Sandra Boone even cast a friendly “nay” vote, adding she would miss Guess.
“This is 43 years, so this is a long time,” Guess said. “I’ve been
privileged to work in three different school districts, and it’s been a great pleasure to work here these three years. I haven’t decided what my next phase will be. I’m going to wait and see how that develops. I don’t plan to pursue another job in education.”
Asked why he chose to leave the post, Guess said the district is doing “good things” but added it is facing significant changes.
“There needs to be a building campaign,” Guess said. “There needs to be a millage campaign. They need to hire an architect. They need to hire a construction firm. We need to find out what the state is going to do in terms of partnership money to help the district support these facilities. We need some commitment for several more years, and they need somebody ready to do all that.”
Kevin Moore, the board’s president, complimented Guess on his achievements, including helping Watson Chapel work its way out of fiscal and academic distress and avoiding a takeover from the Arkansas Department of Education.
Helping a school district improve its financial footing is an easier task than improving its academic performance, Moore said.
“You can adjust expenses and have those expenses mirror revenue,” Moore said. “The other [task] is to create an academic program, and you have to have good people doing that. We’ve got some good people working on that. We’ve got some good administrators in buildings. We’ve got district administrators that are doing a good job. That is far harder of the challenges. We’ve got some people making progress.”
Faculty members are working “really hard” to improve Watson Chapel’s curriculum and doing so in ways that are remarkable, Guess said. Making a curriculum better is at the heart of what districts do, he added.
But he also acknowledged the work staff members did to turn around a declining balance. The district’s ending balance prior to the meeting stood at $8,926,100, a reduction of more than $400,000, but Guess told board members that was due to bonuses paid to teachers.
“In these three years, we made some tough decisions and reversed that declining balance,” Guess said. “It’s hard to address that, but there’s been a lot of good work done by a lot of people.”
Academically, Guess announced the district has received $25,000 in state funding to develop a medical professions course for junior high students in time for the 2021-22 school year.
Moore said he foresees a big task in finding Guess’ successor. He said the search for a new superintendent will begin soon with a job announcement on the district’s website, and he hopes the new hire will be selected by June in order to see the path to success Guess has led.
“I think it’s going to be a very challenging thing for us to try to find somebody to fill his shoes for what he’s done for us with the experience he’s had and over 40 years and everything,” Moore said. “We’re going to have to find somebody who can lead us through to build a building and do a millage campaign and everything. It’s going to be tough.”