The Attala County School Board met Monday to receive a report assessing candidates for the superintendent position from the Mississippi School Board Association (MSBA) superintendent search consultants.
Dr. Tommye Henderson, MSBA superintendent search consultant. and Denotris Jackson, assistant executive director of the MSBA, arrived to the meeting with multiple thick binders containing all of the search information to be handed out to and reviewed with board members.
Although the board went into Executive Session to discuss specific candidates during a meeting that lasted more than two hours, a press release provided by Henderson shed some light on where the search stands at this time.
According to the release, there are 16 candidates for the position.
“Among the applicants are two superintendents, three assistant superintendents, two directors, eight principals and one teacher,” reads the release. “Six of the applicants have a doctorate degree. Eleven of the applicants are male, and five are female. Fifteen applicants are from Mississippi, and one is from Michigan.”
Henderson stated that each applicant’s background was reviewed against standards and criteria established for the search.
“Each application was reviewed, analyzed and evaluated according to the established criteria, and references were checked. Applicants who had not previously been interviewed by the MSBA search team were interviewed in the MSBA office in Ridgeland or by telephone,” Henderson reported. “Reference letters for each applicant were received. Telephone calls and personal contacts were made to gain additional information about each applicant. A determination was also made as to whether each applicant met the qualifications to be a superintendent in Mississippi as defined in the Mississippi Code of 1972, 37-9-13, which went into effect on July 1, 2017.”
The release does not, however, state whether or not the MSBA consultants provided any recommendations to the board for or against any or all of the 16 candidates.
Moody told The Star-Herald Monday night that the board has yet to determine which of the candidates will be interviewed by the board, though she expects interviews to be completed during the month of May.
On Tuesday, in response to a question from The Star-Herald, Moody would not confirm if current Superintendent Bryan Weaver is one of the candidates evaluated in the MSBA report.
Weaver, however, has stated on several occasions that he had, in fact, applied to keep his current position.
Asked if the greater community would be involved in the interview process, Moody said the board will rely on notes gathered during stakeholder meetings held in January.
She said they will also consider incorporating stakeholder questions submitted at that time into the forthcoming interviews.
With an interview process expected to extend into May, it is unclear when the board will be ready to offer the position to either the current superintendent or one of the other applicants.
