Jacksonville-area School Board hires firm to find superintendent

The interim School Board for the new Jacksonville/ North Pulaski School District on Monday hired a Nebraska firm to help find its next superintendent.

The board voted unanimously to hire Omaha, Neb.based search firm McPherson & Jacobson LLC for $9,000. The hire came as a recommendation from interim Superintendent Bobby G. Lester and followed the School Board’s first presentation from an executive firm on a national search.

“This firm here has done a lot of searches in Arkansas,” Lester said after the meeting Monday. “They know the administrators in this state very well.”

The firm and the seven-member School Board are set to meet at 7 p.m. Monday to begin the first of four phases of the search, setting the criteria for the candidates and establishing a timeline for the selection process. That phase also includes putting together potential advertisements and the venues for the ads to begin the national search.

The successful candidate will replace Lester, who is set to retire June 30.

Search consultant Kieth Williams emphasized to the School Board members that the candidate will be a “unique” one. The succeeding superintendent will need to know the state’s school finance laws, construction management and the latest curriculum and instruction — and that’s on top of the history of the Pulaski Coun-

ty Special School District, which is under federal court supervision in a decades-long desegregation case.

In September, Jacksonville and north Pulaski County voters overwhelmingly chose to form their own 100-square-mile, 4,000-student district apart from the Pulaski County Special district. Officials with the new district will have to divide it into election zones of relatively equal populations, and divide staff with the Pulaski County Special district, Williams said.

The School Board has already received eight drafted zoning plans from Metroplan, a regional planning organization. Five of the plans would divide the district into seven zones, producing a seven-member School Board. The other three call for five election zones and a five-member board.

Norris Cain, an interim School Board member, asked Williams if there were candidates in-state who would fit the bill.

“A person in the state of Arkansas — if they have superintendent experience and are highly capable and an established performer — would have more capability of doing it quicker,” Williams said. “A lot of people may have the ability but may not be able to grasp it near as quick as someone that has the institutional memory, the history of all of the things that have transpired in the last 20 to 30 years in the state.”

Daniel Gray, president of the interim School Board, said the board trusted Lester’s recommendation of the firm.

“We’ve got a lot to do,” Gray said. “And things are moving at warp speed.”

He added he hoped the chosen candidate would get to work with Lester for at least a month before the veteran educator retired.

Once the consultants and the board hash out the first phase, the firm will place advertisements, notify and recruit candidates and set interview procedures, including determining compensation parameters. The third phase is the review and evaluation of all the candidates. In the last phase, the firm will schedule interviews with recommended candidates.

The firm offers a fifth phase, which includes going through performance objectives with the chosen candidate and the School Board. The optional phase adds a one-year guarantee, in which the firm will repeat the search process free of charge if the chosen candidate leaves before the year ends.

The School Board tabled that option, which would cost an additional $1,500. It could tack the option on at any point.

Also Monday, the School Board heard from residents on the proposed attendance zones. The proposals have been displayed at Jacksonville City Hall and on the Pulaski County Special School District’s website for public viewing and comments.

Four area residents — including Jacksonville Mayor Gary Fletcher — said they favored a district with five election zones and two at-large representatives.

A seven-member board with two at-large representatives would reduce the “zone mentality,” Jacksonville resident Larry T. Wilson said. Wilson is also the president and chief executive officer of First Arkansas Bank & Trust.

“The factor of the elections by zone has contributed to the failure of our existing district in my opinion,” he said. “And it has been a situation where some of the school board members have become overzealous perhaps in attempting to get school funding and so forth for schools in their zone and not worry about their district as a whole.”

The School Board is set to vote on the zones during its March 2 meeting.