DOTHAN, Ala. – The search for a new schools’ superintendent moved forward at a Coffee County Board of Education work session Monday, April 19.
The purpose of the work session held at the board of education office in Elba was to review the job description and salary range for the person to fill the top slot being vacated upon the retirement of Coffee County Schools Superintendent Kevin Killinsgworth.
Killingsworth announced at the April 8 CCBOE meeting his plan to retire effective Aug. 31 but told the board that he would be available to help with the transition of leadership and the start of the new school year.
Named Coffee County School Superintendent in 2018, Killingsworth has served 30 years as an educator working 11 years with Coffee County Schools, 11 years with Enterprise City Schools and eight years at Elba City Schools.
At the work session April 19, Coffee County Board of Education President Brian McLeod and Coffee County Schools Attorney James Tarbox briefed the board on a probable time line and process for selection of a new superintendent.
McLeod provided each board member with a copy of the superintendent search timeline, process and candidate qualifications that had been used most recently and asked them for feedback about any proposed changes.
He asked each board member to return to him the top six characteristics from a list of 28 traits that they considered key in an ideal superintendent. “I will compile a list of what we came up with and send it out to you so as we head into this process, what traits you see as most and least important as we work through the process,” he said.
A brochure outlining the position requirements is sent out to interested applicants along with a paper application. McLeod distributed to the board copies of the brochure that had been developed for the last superintendent search and asked for board feedback. He also distributed interview questions that had been used in the most recent superintendent search.
An Alabama Association of School Boards manual outlining the superintendent search process was included in the material distributed to the board members.
McLeod said also that a community input survey will be developed and available before the end of the school year to obtain citizen input about their expectations for a superintendent.
The position is expected to be posted by April 28 and will be posted for the next 30 days after it is posted. Applications will be accepted until near the end of May.
McLeod said that for several of the most recent superintendent search processes the board has utilized the services of the school board attorneys to receive and do a preliminary review of the applicants. He said that the board was of the consensus to proceed that way with this search.
The attorneys will certify the applications in late May or early June, McLeod said. A target date is to conduct interviews of the finalists in June and naming a superintendent by July with an official start date of Sept. 1, he said.
Tarbox outlined the legal minimum qualifications for a superintendent for the board. “The board can determine preferences and if it wants to add any qualifications the board can legally add qualifications or it can make them ‘preferences,’” he explained. “You just have to remember that you could be limiting your applicant field.”
Tarbox said that board members can go to the school board attorneys’ offices at Marsh and Cotter to review the applications that have been received but suggested that they come individually in order to avoid the perception of any violation of the Alabama Open Meetings Act which guarantees that citizens have open access to public governmental entities. “If you know me you know that we are going err on the side of caution in all aspects,” he said.
The interviews of the finalists will be conducted in a public work session or meeting, Tarbox said. “The public will be allowed in to those interviews.
“In regard to discussing salary and qualifications and general candidate preferences. That all has to be done in public, in open deliberations,” Tarbox said. “All of this will be above board, out in the open and pursuant to the Open Meetings Act and Alabama Public Records requirements.”
The next meeting of the Coffee County Board of Education is Tuesday, April 27, at 5:30 p.m. at the Coffee County Board of Education office on Reddoch Hill Road in Elba. A work session will be followed immediately by a voting meeting. Both meetings are open to the public.
