Chapel looks at 9 to lead district
Former principals and administrators in Pine Bluff-area schools are among nine candidates interviewing to succeed Jerry Guess as superintendent of the Watson Chapel School District this week.
The district announced board members conducted four interviews Tuesday and will conduct five more today at the administration building. Guess announced during January’s board meeting he would step down from his role June 30, but has stopped short of saying whether he would retire.
Each of the nine candidates, whom district officials say are not “finalists,” have experience as superintendents, a prerequisite board members listed.
“I think we’re pretty strong-willed about that,” said board Vice President Sandra Boone, who is leading the interviews. “A few years ago, a search was done and we were not fruitful. We’re looking for someone who will meet the needs of Watson Chapel, not just gain experience and move on to higher places. As a board member, we work as a cohesive team. We try to do what’s best for the school district and the community.”
Guess has been credited with helping Watson Chapel work out of financial and academic distress in three years on the job.
“If we don’t get somebody that understands how to maintain the fiscal solvency of the district and promote the academic programs, the district then is once again at risk of descending into fiscal or academic distress,” he said. “The best chance on that is to find an experienced superintendent dealing with those issues now and hire that person. I think it’s a reasonable expectation.”
Candidates who interviewed Tuesday, Boone said, include Stuttgart schools Superintendent Rick Gales; Fordyce schools Superintendent Judy Hubbell; Dumas Junior High School Principal Monica McMurray and North Little Rock schools Assistant Superintendent Keith McGee. Today’s interviewees include former Deer/Mount Judea schools Superintendent Andrew Curry; Arkansas Department of Education Assistant State Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree; former North Little Rock schools Superintendent Bobby
“There were going to be eight [now nine] people interviewed, but none were going to be employees of the Watson Chapel School District. I was shocked about that.”
— Kristy Sanders, K-12 curriculum director
Acklin; Dumas schools Superintendent Kelvin Gragg and former Pine Bluff schools administrator Ronald Laurent.
McMurray served as Pine Bluff interim superintendent for a brief period in 2018. Barbaree is a former principal at Edgewood Elementary, the kindergarten and first-grade campus in the Watson Chapel district, and was superintendent in the Armorel district in Mississippi County. Acklin previously served in Dollarway and Warren schools before leading North Little Rock schools from October 2018 until last April.
Gragg and Laurent are former principals in the Pine Bluff School District. Laurent is a former superintendent in Gould.
Kristy Sanders, the K-12 curriculum director for the Watson Chapel district, publicly announced she would apply to succeed Guess shortly after the January board meeting, in which Sanders said Guess’ announcement took her by surprise.
“I was told no one that already works here would be getting an interview,” Sanders said Wednesday. “I applied, but that’s what I was told. Other people from the district applied. There were going to be eight [now nine] people interviewed, but none were going to be employees of the Watson Chapel School District. I was shocked about that.”
Boone hasn’t ruled out the possibility of looking within the district or elsewhere should the board not agree on any of the nine candidates, but added that’s not an individual decision for her to make.
“This is my fourth superintendent search for the Watson Chapel School District,” Boone said. “That was something we decided to put within our prerequisites for superintendent.”
When asked if anyone employed in the Watson Chapel district has the capability of continuing the work he has done, Guess called the question “complex.”
“There are going to be a lot of superintendencies around the state, and the boards are facing the same question: How do we find experienced people who can deal with these complex academic and fiscal issues?” Guess explained. “I’m going to say the biggest part of the problem is in south Arkansas, where enrollments are declining as a result of the change in the economy exacerbated by school choice charters. I think it’s a really critical time for public schools, and school boards going forward need to do everything they can to serve the very best, if possible, by getting experienced people if they can. I think that’s the priority. If they’re not satisfied, then they drop down to the next tier.”