School board releases names of finalists for superintendent
More than 48 hours after the list of superintendent finalists was trimmed in secret, Hamilton County Board of Education members were given the names of the nine candidates they’ll interview for the post.
School board Chairman Steve Highlander told the board Thursday afternoon that Natasha Baker, Alan Coverstone, Clifford Davis, Jack Elsey Jr., Timothy Gadson III, Stuart Greenberg, Arthur Wayne Johnson, Bryan Johnson and Kirk Kelly will be interviewed. The times will be announced later.
Last week, Highlander told each board member to name 10 candidates they wanted to interview from the pool of 14. He asked for two lists, each in alphabetical order, with the first list representing their top five choices.
On Tuesday, Highlander, the board secretary and a representative from the search firm, Coleman Lew and Associates, tabulated the results in private. Highlander has not said what method was used to tabulate the results, or whether candidates on the members’ top five lists were weighted differently from those on their second lists.
State law says the board must deliberate in public and members may not cast secret votes or use emails as a way to avoid open meetings laws.
“All votes of any such governmental body shall be by public vote or public ballot or public roll call. No secret votes, or secret ballots, or secret roll calls shall be allowed,” according to state law.
The Times Free Press requested the board members’ emailed lists of candidates Tuesday. The emails are public records in Tennessee.
Highlander released the emails to the Times Free Press on Thursday, after the search firm contacted each candidate.
According to the emails, school board members Joe Galloway, Karitsa Mosley Jones, Kathy Lennon, David Testerman and Highlander all included Kelly, the district’s interim superintendent, on their lists of top-five candidates.
Lennon, Galloway and Testerman advocated for hiring Kelly as permanent superintendent in November before the board decided to hold a search. Board members Tiffanie Robinson and Joe Wingate were the only ones not to name Kelly among their total 10 candidates.
One other candidate, Arthur Johnson, also appeared on five board members’ lists of top-five candidates.
Scott Bennett, the school board attorney, earlier this week defended the process for narrowing the finalist list. He argued the board did not violate the state’s open meetings law because board members did not meet together and discuss their opinions or work toward a consensus. He said board members just shared their interview choices with Highlander via email, and he then determined the number of candidates to interview and who to interview based on those preferences.
“The board certainly could have done this whole thing in an open meeting, and the only reason they did it by email is for expediency,” Bennett said Tuesday.
Testerman said Thursday he thinks the superintendent search process could have been more transparent, and he said several board members are frustrated they had to wait two days to learn the finalists.
“I hope we can be better with [the process] going forward,” he added.
Testerman said this search needs to be one of the board’s top priorities, and he hopes the video interviews with candidates will be scheduled soon.
It’s been more than a year since former Superintendent Rick Smith resigned after months of turmoil following the Ooltewah High School rape case. The school board in November hired the search firm at a cost of about $60,000.