Watson Chapel district picks Curry as next chief
Former Deer/Mount Judea schools chief Andrew Curry has been tapped to succeed Jerry Guess as Watson Chapel School District superintendent, effective July 1.
The Watson Chapel School Board voted 5-0 — two members were absent — to approve Curry’s hiring during Monday’s regular board meeting.
Curry was one of nine candidates who interviewed with the board during the last week in February. Board members convened for three days last week to discuss their choices.
“We had a list of criteria that we asked each candidate, and we scored them on a rubric, which we devised,” said
Sandra Boone, the board vice president who led the interview process. “We’re looking for someone who would be a good fit for our district. We had requisites of someone with superintendent experience, and those are the people that we interviewed.”
Curry emerged from a pool that almost entirely consisted of administrators with ties to southeast Arkansas. Other interviewees were current Superintendents Kelvin Gragg of Dumas, Rick Gales of Stuttgart and Judy Hubbell of Fordyce; Assistant State Superintendent and former Edgewood Elementary Principal Jennifer Barbaree; former Dollarway, Warren and North Little Rock Superintendent Bobby Acklin; former Pine Bluff Principal Ronald Laurent; Dumas Junior High School Principal Monica McMurray; and North Little Rock Assistant Superintendent Keith McGee.
Curry was not present at Monday’s meeting.
Boone was asked what made Curry stand out from the rest of the candidates.
“I can’t think of anything particular at this point,” Boone responded. “He met our criteria, and we think he’ll be a good fit for Watson Chapel. He seems to be a people person, and we need someone to carry on the legacy which has begun, and we don’t want our district to go down. We want our district to remain solvent as it is, and that’s what we’re looking for in a superintendent.”
The board also named head football Coach Jared Dutton as the district’s athletic director. Dutton succeeds Leslie Henderson, who is stepping down effective June 30 to focus on her girls basketball program.
Melvin Wilkes was also hired as a bus driver.
The board accepted retirement letters from elementary teachers Marva Crater and Sandra Loetscher and a resignation from secondary teacher Angela Prather.
In other district business:
■ Watson Chapel will submit a district waiver form to the Arkansas Department of Education’s Division of Elementary and Secondary Education to allow people with four-year degrees in particular content areas to serve as teachers without a traditional license, pursuant to Act 1240 of 2015. The district is facing a shortage of certified teachers in English, mathematics, science, social studies and nonacademic content areas for the 2021-22 school year, and teachers who have either college degrees or high school diplomas are serving in those areas. The district is requesting a five-year waiver through the 2025-26 school year.
■ The free ACT test for high school juniors has been rescheduled for April 13 because of recent interruptions in the school calendar such as the Feb. 14-17 snowstorms and the resulting water pressure decline across Pine Bluff the following week. The test had been scheduled for Feb. 23.
■ Guess announced the district is planning for a traditional graduation ceremony May 11 and a traditional prom, depending on the status of the current mask mandate from Gov. Asa Hutchinson. An alternate plan for a prom under an extended mandate is also being considered.