Murdock to guide Lee County schools

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Education Secretary Johnny Key on Thursday announced he has appointed Willie Murdock to be the superintendent of the state-controlled Lee County School District, a position she held from 2012-17.

Murdock, the wife of state Rep. Reginald Murdock, D-Marianna, is replacing Zrano Bowles Jr.

Murdock has been the director of the Arkansas Career Pathways Initiative for the Arkansas Department of Higher Education since August 2017.

Her experience includes being a curriculum specialist, an elementary school principal and a teacher, all in the Lee County district.

In 2014, during her previous superintendency, Lee County district was placed under state control and the School Board was dismissed because of chronically low student achievement, but Murdock was retained to manage the district under state direction. Student achievement improved, and a new School Board was elected in September 2015. In 2017, the School Board voted against retaining Murdock.

Provisions of Murdock’s contract, including her salary, were being finalized Thursday, said Kimberly Mundell, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Bowles is resigning from the Lee County job that he has held for about a year.

He had been deputy superintendent of the Forrest City district when Key called on him to head the Lee County district in March 2019. The state had taken over the Lee County district just days before — removing Superintendent Elizabeth Johnson and the district’s School Board — for what state officials said were egregious violations of state standards for accreditation.

Those violations included the district’s failure to maintain accurate, up-to-date course transcripts for its students, putting more than half of last school year’s senior class in jeopardy of failing to achieve the minimum 22 course requirements for graduation.

Currently, John Hoy is serving as the interim superintendent in Lee County. Hoy is a former assistant commissioner at the Arkansas Department of Education and more recently the superintendent of the Helena-West Helena School District and an assistant state superintendent in the state office of school support and improvement.

“This is my thirty-ninth year in public education,” Hoy posted on the Lee County School District website on Wednesday. “Most of my career has been devoted to working in schools districts in the delta region of Arkansas, including nine years of service in the Lee County School District.

“My role as interim is to continue to build on the progress made by outgoing superintendent Dr. Zrano Bowles and facilitate the transition to the next district leader,” Hoy wrote.

“My role as interim is to continue to build on the progress made by outgoing superintendent Dr. Zrano Bowles and facilitate the transition to the next district leader.” — John Hoy, interim superintendent, Lee County