No school chief yet for NLR
Need more time, its board decides
North Little Rock School Board members decided they need more time to hire a new superintendent and will select an interim superintendent in the meantime, it was announced during a special board meeting Monday evening.
The announcement came after the board spent one hour and 15 minutes in executive session to consider six candidates the board had interviewed last week.
Once the board reconvened into public session, board President Sandi Campbell said that the board “will continue our search” to find the person to oversee the 8,500-student district.
No one has been selected for the temporary position, she said after the meeting. A new meeting for the board to fill the interim job hasn’t been set.
The new superintendent is to replace Kelly Rodgers, 61, who has said he will retire June 30. He has one year left
on his contract.
“It’s just that we need more time,” Campbell said after the meeting adjourned. “We will go with an interim at this time.”
Monday’s meeting, Campbell had said last week, would be to choose a superintendent or an interim superintendent “if we cannot come to an agreement.”
When asked if the interim choice would be selected from among the six known to have interviewed for the superintendent position, Campbell said, “I can’t say right now.”
All six finalists were still under consideration Monday, she said. No offer has been made to any of the finalists for the permanent job, Campbell said.
The board interviewed three candidates last Tuesday and three on Thursday. A committee of district employees and community members also interviewed the candidates on both nights, separate from the board.
The six candidates who interviewed are:
Bobby Acklin, 62, of North Little Rock, an assistant superintendent for the North Little Rock district from 1989 to 2013. He was formerly superintendent of two other school districts: Dollarway School District in Jefferson County and the Warren School District. Since August, he has been a part-time adviser/trainer for novice teachers in central Arkansas charter schools for the Arkansas Public School Resource Center.
Laura Bednar, 52, of Little Rock, the head of school for Baptist Preparatory School since 2016. She is a former deputy superintendent in the Pulaski County Special School District; former assistant commissioner of learning services in the Arkansas Department of Education; and former superintendent of the Stuttgart School District.
Marvin Burton, 53, of Little Rock, the deputy superintendent/associate superintendent of high schools in the Little Rock School District, where he has previously served as a biology teacher, curriculum coordinator, assistant principal, middle school principal and high school principal.
Micheal Stone, 40, of Sherwood, executive director of student and equity services for the North Little Rock district since 2013, and previously director of federal programs, elementary school principal and assistant principal as well as a teacher in the district.
Charity Smith, 63, of Little Rock, a former assistant commissioner for school accountability for the Arkansas Department of Education, is a principal education associate for Fetterman & Associates, a California School-improvement consulting firm. She worked in various positions in the Arkansas Education Department from 1994 to 2011. Before that, she was a principal in the Little Rock School District.
Jeff Stubblefield, 58, of Charleston, superintendent of the Charleston School District in Northwest Arkansas, where he has worked since 1984The board said it received 15 applications from across the country.