001To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] Dr. Yes, sir. My name is Scott Chica. We'll go ahead and go over introduce Jeff. Uh, I'm the vice president of the board. Go over there. My name is Patricia Carter Lewis Bobby Jones Dylan Ty Secretary Jim Chief President. [Music] So we received your uh received your resume the president. So the way the way we're going to conduct this is uh the interview uh is kind of be kind of conducted in in public uh but discussion is done in executive session. So we're going to conduct this format of we have four people interview this evening. It'll be a long evening and uh we do a lot
002of discussion executive session. So we have many questions we want to ask you and same question and you ready to get started with this ask [Music] question. First question we have has to do with budget plus you know finance is a big in the school district. So first question is how would have you handle budget constraints while maintaining highquality education standards. So that's the first question. Well, I've been through a reduction in force. When I became superintendent at Ford, they moved me up from high school principal. We had to have an immediate reduction in force. and it's not something you enjoy doing, but 80% of your school budget is for personnel. And for whatever their salary is, you've got to factor in another one quarter for benefits. And I don't know, that may be closer
003to a third now with inflation being skyh high. So, it's hard to go in and tell people you're going to have to cut back. Everybody wants smaller classes and it would be great if you can have that, but it's just like at home. If you don't have the money, you don't have the money. So, we were able to handle ours mostly through attrition, but we did have some positions that we didn't think were necessary that we did away with. we decided that we were not big enough to justify having assistant principles and we just went to a dean and that that was cost effective for us. Um I think that I don't know if you all have professional learning communities here but I have found that if those are conducted correctly you can really get
004your teachers to buy into helping the individual child no matter what. And to me, that's the beauty of a smaller school district. I have never had any desire to be in a larger school district. I I I like to be in a small one. And generally, you have community people who are very caring about those children. And I think that most of the time, they will step up to the challenge when you show them that you're truly in a budget front. Uh and I think you have to probably show them the figures. It was very difficult to tell those people my very first year that they were not going to get a Christmas bonus. But I went ahead and told them in August. I said, you know, you need to be aware of that now.
005Uh thankfully, we got some Esser money that helped with lots of things. And we couldn't call it a Christmas bonus. We had to call it something else. But we we did that. Uh there's probably no bigger morale killer than not having a Christmas bonus. That that is tough. But uh you know, you want to keep your your class sizes as small as you can. You can also look at your federal money and see what positions you can pay out of federal money instead of out of the salary fund. And and that helps you some when you can do that. Uh I would want to sit down with the federal programs director and go through that. make sure that we had everybody being paid out of those funds that we could. The ESA, we used to
006call it NSLA, but I think it's called ESA now. And uh, you know, look at [Music] that. Question number two, what strategies have you used to improve student achievement in your previous role? What strategies have you used to improve student achievement in your previous Okay. When I was hired as principal of Ford High School, the board called me in and said, "Your main task is to straighten up discipline. You cannot learn in an an environment of chaos. Teachers cannot teach in that environment. They cannot. So, you need to have student discipline where it should be. And I don't mean to just, you know, be mean to them day in and day out, but there's no place for kids cursing at teachers, threatening to hit them, spitting at them. There there is no place for that.
007And we straightened that up pretty quickly and we exited academic distress that year. Now, there was another thing that I looked at kind of closely. We were a high poverty school district. And I think from looking at your figures, you've got, I think, 76% economically disadvantaged, nutrition is very important for children, especially who don't know where their next meal is coming from. Now, I've been around poverty my whole life, and I was even shocked at Ford eyes that so many kids didn't get a bite of food except what they got at school. And if you're hungry, you're not going to learn. I got invited to my nephew's big church in Little Rock once and they had this big screen and they had somebody there doing a presentation about doing a freshwater ministry to South America.
008And boy, that was so inspiring. You know, I was ready to put on my fifth helmet and get my Jeep, go to South America. Well, then at 12:00, the preacher got up and said, "Now for today's sermon." I had not had any breakfast and I suddenly lost my missionary zeal and all I could think about was going to eat. Kids are no different. Uh we instituted second breakfast that was very key on the high school campus. You know, high school kids are going to get that last minute of sleep that they can. And we would do second breakfast. We called it grab and go. We would just set up in the commons area and they could get milk, juice, you know, a a cinnamon roll. And on the days we had sausage biscuits, they really
009love that. That was great. And we did another thing that improved nutrition on our campus. We contracted with K12 culinary to improve the quality of the cafeteria food, make it more kid-friendly, you know, that that kind of thing. And that went over big. Uh we it seemed like we were having mashed potatoes and chicken nuggets every other day and the kids were tired of it and and I could see that. I always tried to eat in the lunchroom so I would have a handle on what they were eating. So I think that's important. And we packed up backpacks with beanie weenies and mac and cheese for the weekends for those kids who just probably weren't going to eat very much over the weekend. uh you you've got to look at the whole child when you're
010looking for academic achievement. Uh you you I had to understand that not all kids are like me. I was going to make that a whether or not and nobody made me do that. It was just one of those intrinsic things that was just natural with me. But not everybody's that way. I'm sorry. I feel like my answers are too long. You're all right. Okay. All right. Third question. Um, how do you ensure that all students receive equal education opportunities? Um, like you mentioned, uh, there's lots of we have a high incidence of poverty in our area. Yeah. So um so how do how did what's some things that you should be able to offer all the students receive equal education opportunities? Well, I think you constantly need to look for new programs that will give
011them marketable skills. Uh do you all have your shop and egg program on campus or do you go to a nearby community college for that? Yeah. Well, you need to always be scouting for new new programs. uh you know the job market changes and and we have to keep up with that and be aware of it. As far as when there are complaints that not everybody is getting treated equally, I jump on that immediately. I think that it's good to pop in classrooms to see what's going on, you know, unannounced just for a few minutes. And you can learn a lot just standing out in the hall. just stand there for about 10 minutes and you'll learn a lot. Uh I I'm very big on everybody being treated equally. I I think that's important. [Music]
012Uh poverty is probably the biggest obstacle children have in learning. Now I didn't pay too much attention to what we always call the edgeabble books in college, but Jonathan Kosall Savage Inequalities really resonated with me. It made me stop and think about all the obstacles those kids have to overcome and it is to society's advantage to help them overcome that. You want them to be productive, capable citizens. I think preparing kids for citizenship is very important. Just being good citizens in the community. Uh, I always tried to work closely with the student council when they had some kind of uh a a gripe about something. I always tried to uh treat them like they were young adults. We I had a conference table kind of like this and I could seat them all at the
013conference table and I could serve them a soft drink and some cookies and we would sit and talk and that seemed to kind of tamp down discontent over some things and some of them asked to bring their parent with them. I said sure bring your parent on. That'll be great. Uh you always want to look for that bridge to the community that that you can build. That's so [Music] important. That's number four. How do you evaluate the performance of principles and other administrators which we mainly have those uh principles here uh and other administrators within the district. So how do you evaluate the performance of the principles and other administrators within the the district in the past? I don't think you have any choice but to do a test evaluation. I think that's still the
014official uh instrument that the state makes us use. I don't like it, but I would rather create my own instrument for for that. But uh you want to do what AD tells you to do. I found that that works very well to bow very low. And number five, what steps would you take to address low teacher morale or higher turnover rates? Well, you know, if I had the answer to that, I'd write a book and get rich. Every small rural school district has that problem. Uh teacher morale, again, not getting a Christmas bonus is probably the biggest morale killer that there is. I try to do little things for them. Uh, call Sonic with your app, get somebody to go around, get everybody's drink order, bring everybody a Coke in the afternoon. It's not much,
015but it says that you're thinking about it. And I always tried to have an open door policy where you could come in and sit down and talk to me about whatever's going on. uh I may not have the answer immediately, but I'm going to try to find the answer. I think to uh treat everybody equally and fairly. I I think that teachers know if you're a good person or not. I think they know if you really do have their best interest at heart. And and I I try to do that. I I I I pride myself on living my life by a code of standards. Um I have a very very stable personal life. I my husband and I have been married for 44 years. Been married to the same man for 44 years. And
016we have two kids who are grown at least chronologically. I don't know if we'll ever get them off the title though. I'm doubting it. But anyway, uh I I I try to be a good person and deal fairly with with everybody. And as far as losing teachers, I think you all have already done something that helps to attract students and retain your teachers and that's the 4day school calendar. Uh I have found that's a huge recruitment tool to use. People want that and they want a good athletic program. And when I became superintendent at Ford, they said, "Oh, by the way, you're the athletic director, too." And I said, "Oh, well, how nice." Uh, so I got well acquainted with TripleA. And uh it it was actually a fun experience, but people want to have
017good athletic teams. And I want the kids to excel in everything because those are scholarship pathways. And the more scholarships you can prepare kids to have, the better off they're going to be. I want these organizations like FFA and all that. I want those all to be scholarship rounds. I think they say that more kids go to college on a band scholarship than any other kind of scholarship. So all that's important. And if you have all those good programs, you're going to attract and retain students and probably teachers as well. Now, do you all have a private school around here that Oh, good. Okay. Good. Shut that thing down. Okay. But I I'm a fervent believer in good athletic programs. I I think that it gives kids a purpose, a reason to come to school,
018to make their grades. I think it gives the community something to take pride in. I I think it's just good all the way around. All right. Down to question number six. Describe your experience with facilities management and capital improvement projects. Oh, I've done that. Let me tell you my success story here. We had potholes on our campus that would swallow a Volkswagen. It would chip a tooth and change your radio station. We had an HVAC system that was just nearly shot. And the only way we were going to do that was to pass a millillage. And everybody said, "Judy, do not do that. You can't pass it. It's going to make you look bad. Nobody's going to vote for a millage." I said, "Well, that may happen, but they can't shoot me. So, let's go
019for it. Let's go for a five mil." So, I took my little PowerPoint show to Rotary and everybody else that would had me. And we passed that thing by twothirds of the vote. And we uh repaid our entire parking lots. We built two new blue rock parking lots. And I'm going to tell you, I didn't know that asphalt cost the same as pure gold. I could not believe how expensive that stuff is. That's why we did two blue rock lots. But we had had a a an arena that the HVAC system was about 25 years old. And every year at graduation, I think, "Oh, dear God, don't let that thing go out today." We replace that. uh it probably kept us from going into facilities distress with the state. So yes, and I've worked very
020closely with Sean Carol at East Hardy Construction. I don't know who you all use, but that's who we always use. So yes, I' I've had experience with building projects, capital improvements and so forth. And a millage increase. This next question I think You touched on it, but I'll go ahead and ask it. What role do extracurricular activities play in a well-rounded education for children? Well, you got to have that to have a healthy school culture. You've got to uh I I'm of the old school. I think you ought to be able to look back on your school days and say, you know, that was kind of fun once in a while. I think that's very important. I think that all of these activities, not just sports, but clubs and organizations. It teaches self-discipline. It it
021gives them motivation. Uh it gives them career paths. It gives them a path to maybe a lifelong hobby that is enjoyable. I think it just molds the whole person. You you I'm a big believer in a student as a whole human being. [Music] Number eight, describe your approach to handling dis disciplinary issues involving students and uh staff. Describe your approach to handling disciplinary student issues involving students and staff. A lot of that would be brought to you from Yeah. Well, I would first investigate and see what the real story is because I doubt that you're going to get what about half of it. Uh, I would investigate that. I have had instances where teachers have been in the wrong. And I, again, it's not something you enjoy doing, but sometimes it's necessary to write up
022a teacher to get their attention. And I always told mine and I did this in conjunction with well then it was Kristen Garner at the state but I said you know your first write up that's going to be your warning. The second one you're probably going to have about a 3-day rip and the third one we're probably going to move to send you home permanently and I have had some of that to do. Um I I don't enjoy it but I can do it. And you know, I've learned something in the superintendent business. Not everybody can do that hard, unpleasant stuff, but I can. I don't like to, but I can. And I can, you know, I put up that icy wall when I need to. And sometimes you just have to. [Music] Is that
023students or teachers? You I'm talking about teachers teachers. Teachers question with students are Well, yeah. And with students, I mean, you let the principal attend to disciplinary issues with students. That's as superintendent. That's not your job unless it's some kind of a a conflict where it has to be bumped up the line unless they bring expulsion. Sometimes they bring expulsion. Well, yeah. Expulsion. Push up to you got to decide to push it to us. Right. Right. He might either you either got decided posted or not pushed. Right. Well, yes. We we did quite good of that too. But I always sat down with my building administrators and we we would examine if we really thought that was going to be the best for the child or not. Uh again, I believe that you should have
024a respectful climate for students and teachers or learning cannot take place. Okay. Can you provide example of a time when you had to make a difficult decision for the betterment of of the school district district? Can you find an example of a time you had to make a difficult decision for the betterment of the school district? Well, having a reduction in force was a difficult decision. That that was probably the most difficult thing I've had to do, but we did it. We brought finances back in line and I felt like all in all we had done a good day's work on that. And anytime you have to, you know, move for expulsion on a student like we just discussed, that's that's difficult. Or move for faculty or staff to be terminated. That's that's difficult. But
025you do it when it it's like that one rotten apple in the barrel. Sometimes you just have to remove it. It's all there is to it. [Music] what she talking about the parent making a difficult decision as a superintendent you're probably going to have to make a difficult decision about every day the last question is why you believe uh you're the best candidate for this position as a school superintendent well first of all I have a wealth of experience Um, I was in the classroom for 21 years. I've been a literacy specialist at a co-op. Uh, I had my own consulting company and got a contract through AD where I supervised AL campuses in the southern half of Arkansas. I I've had experience to the flag of the United States of America and to the
026republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] Dr. Yes, sir. My name is Scott Chica. We'll go ahead and go ahead and introduce uh I'm the vice president of the board. over there. My name is Patricia Carter Lewis Jones. Dylan T, Secretary of MT of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] cheek. My cheek. Nice to meet you. Dylan Ty, Bobby Jones. [Music] Good evening, Dr. Kerry. My name is Scott Cheek. I'm the vice president of the school board and um I'm going to be uh asking a question this evening. uh we have uh your uh resume and u we're going to um this first part of this
027two-part process. The first part of of the interview will be conducted in open session. Um just going to be we're asking you 10 questions. We're asking all we have four four candidates this evening. We're asking them questions and then the second part will be done in executive session. So, it's going to be a two-part process. So, you have water and we have some peppermints and so we have a restroom right here. If you need to take a break, just let us know. We have an hour for each interview uh to be conducted today. So, that being said, we'll go ahead and start with questions. So first question we have today is how would you handle budget constraints while maintaining highquality education standards? So I'll ask that one more time. How would you handle budget constraints
028while maintaining highquality education standards? Well, I think the first thing to do there would be to look at the budget and kind of see where you're at uh right now and try to make sure that you're maximizing your title one money, your ESA money. Um, make sure that you're coding things correctly. That's one of the biggest issues that you run into sometimes is is that things aren't coded uh into the right uh place to be paid for. So u and then at the end of the day it's all about revenue versus expenditures. So you've got to make sure that uh you know you got one greater than the other. Uh and if your expenditures are greater than your revenue you got to make some adjustments. Moving on. Next question we have is, "What strategies have
029you used to improve student achievement in any of your previous roles?" Well, I think one thing is is to make sure that kids are getting matched with the programs that they can be successful in. Um, I'm a big proponent of uh career and technical education. I believe that um agriculture science is a big, you know, part of things that we're not tapping into a lot of times. Um I'm big into u the building trades. I believe that we've got a crisis in our country of in the future we're going to have problems with plumbers, heating air, um carpentry, masonry, uh those sort of things. So, I try to do some things to make sure the kids are matched and understand what opportunities are out there. Um, you know, there's a lot of good good ways
030for kids to make a living uh that are not necessarily centered on college. I know in the past that that's probably been the one way that we have um, you know, tried to I guess push kids into going. Um, and it's not for for all kids. Um, but I think that if you've got kids that are in the middle that are looking for um programs of study that will help them in a lifetime of work. Uh, you got to be able to offer those to your kids. On the other hand, uh I think you got a probably a group of kids there that need some higher level uh courses that are there and whether that's AP um advanced placement courses or concurrent enrollment. Um you know, you got to be able to offer those high
031level courses so those kids can walk out with some college credit necessary. And then you also have to have the staff that can challenge your students. And I think that comes from making sure that you keep, you know, the good quality people that you have that are able to challenge kids and especially in high school, math and science is always a challenge and see you guys entice those people and then also keep them keep them here. [Music] Question number three. Um, how do you ensure that all students receive a equal education opportunity? Um, u here at the high school with poverty levels pretty high. So, how do you ensure that all students receive a equal education opportunity? I think again you've got to have the right staff in place. I think you got to have
032the right principles in place that um know their kids. I think that's really important. Um if you're not kid- centered as an administrator, then you're going to have um you're going to have a problem knowing what your kids want or knowing what they are able to uh to do and and um I think once you get to really know what your kids strengths and weaknesses are, then you can tailor your program towards that. I think uh from the superintendent's role, the most important thing is to support the principles uh and the staff and and when when they're doing doing their day-to-day work. Um you know, and to understand that, you know, you've got to get to know people in the beginning. Uh you got to build relationships with people and that you've got to be
033uh in a position to where people look to you for trust and and you know and and want to know that you're going to do the right thing for their for their child and and bring good programs to the school. Question number four, how do you evaluate the performance of principles or other administrators that you may be you know in the past within this the district said how do you evaluate the performance of principles or other administrators within the district or you know you've done in the past I think again probably in the beginning the best thing to do is to get to know that person first. Um, you know, sometimes what you see maybe on the outside or what uh is perceived as, you know, the way of people are um, you know, might
034not be exactly the truth, you know. So I think you have to take some time in the beginning and and get to know people and build a relationship with them before you can start down the road of evaluation because um you know um I think it's always good once a year to sit down maybe even you know in the very beginning you you got to sit down with that person and just get to know who they are. um you know people along with kids they won't know you care until you know you show them that you care about um so I think that that's very important is to build those relationships with people and then I think down the road if there are things you need to address you know you've got to be able
035to have honest open conversations uh with people um difficult um difficult situations or difficult uh difficult conversations might have to be had, you know, with principal. Um, I've had that before. It's u it's a lot easier to do once you know that person and once that person trusts you and, you know, you're able to either help them, you know, move on to a different place or help them get better is what the goal would be is to help them get better in what they do. Question number five, what steps would you take to address low teacher morale or high turnover rates? I'll say that one more time. What steps would you take, you know, to address low teacher morale or high turnover rates? You know, I think a lot of that again has to come
036from your building administration and I think that um you know knowing that that person that you've got in charge of that building um has the same philosophy that you do about you know having a high teacher morale. um you know it's it's difficult to make everyone happy and if you've got um you know fiscal issues you know you're going to have to say no a lot and that's not popular. Um but you know you got to be able to balance between um making cuts and doing the things that need to be done and at the same time you know letting people know that you appreciate them. I think it's always important. Uh doing anything you can to get more money into people's hands is always, you know, something that everybody appreciates and wants. Um so
037I think all those things are are important to do. Six. describe your experience with facilities management and capital improvement projects. I've had the opportunity to be involved in about I would say $50 million worth building projects over my career uh from the beginning of u two schools that consolidated. I was high school principal at one of them. I was been superintendent at the other one. Those two districts came together to make a Top River School District over in western Arkansas. Uh we were fortunate enough to get a $16 million high school in the middle of cattle pasture on the Oklahoma border. Uh and I was basically, you know, got to lead that process, buy the land, uh and move forward with getting a new high school built. Um that was um pretty exciting you know
038especially in the beginning of your career which that was my first superintendent job. Um so I got to oversee that building project and then I went to another school district and basically was hired because a millage had been passed. So I had to implement uh that millillage um and and do the buildings that they needed built. Uh, one of the things we ran into was is that yes, we had a millillage and yes, we had um new buildings, but nobody had thought about a increase in um operating cost of those buildings. So, we had to go back and make some adjustments. And um you know, of course, when you run a millillage, you try to tell everything try to tell everybody everything that they want to get them to vote for millet. So, you know,
039you have to turn around and then kind of reverse course maybe on some things that were promised or buildings have to be smaller or, you know, those sort of things. Um, I think that facilities um maintaining your facilities is very important. making sure that you've got uh you know the right uh system set up you know with your custodial staff with um you know with with your teachers and to understand kind of how all that works together is extremely important and then also to make sure that you're watching out for what happens uh at facilities department um you know I go back to the first huckabe and that's when the facilities department was kind of created Uh and I actually think that was a very good thing. You know, before that there's a lot of
040uh you know people building things on school campuses that maybe weren't safe or maybe we're not uh in such a position to you know be a longlasting thing for a district. And so I I try to try to monitor what they do and look for opportunities with facilities to uh you know to either do HBAC upgrades or anything that's available out there to try to seize that as quickly as possible. What role does what role does extracurricular activities play in well well-rounded education? I think they're extremely important and I think that we all learned that during the co pandemic whenever that happened. U you know there was that's about the only thing that kept people coming to school in a lot of ways was um you know that that fact. I think if you have
041a good athletic program that's always going to be something that you know people are um wanting to be a part of. Um, but I also think that, you know, you've got to have a good agriculture program, a good FFA program. Um, music is very important. A lot of kids are, you know, musically inclined. Uh, they've got, um, their brains are set up to, you know, to learn that way. So, I think music and band is extremely important. Um, I'm a huge proponent of extracurricular activities because I I think that that's why some kids will either graduate or the reason they'll come to school every day is because of those extracurricular [Music] activities. Describe your approach to handling disciplinary issues involving students or staff. Uh the student's mind would be like uh you know the principal
042would bring somebody that was in expulsion. You would yes that would be something principal would bring you that would be kind of example but or staff. So describe your approach to handling disciplinary issues involving students or staff. With both, I would want uh legal counsel, you know, close by to make sure that I'm uh walking down the right road, you know, for those things. Um, you know, in the past, you know, I've had suspension and expulsions and those sort of things that, you know, come to the superintendent's office and you always try to make sure that you follow the right protocols, you know, send them the letters out and then give them an opportunity to come in, you know, into a meeting and, you know, explain yourself or, you know, try to work with them.
043But I always try to support the principal's decisions. Um, if they are, you know, have proven to you that they can make good decisions. uh you want to make sure that you're supporting that principal because I've been a high school principal myself before and it's a tough thing uh to feel like you're not getting supported from the superintendent's office or that something that you're maybe trying to um trying to do with your kids and show a disciplinary action and then it gets changed on you because of you know somebody's last name or whatever you know I think it's important to be uh strong and you know support the principal in in you know that process. Uh at the same time uh I think you've got to make sure that you're working with your legal counsel
044to make sure that you know you're not doing anything to get the district in trouble because ultimately the superintendent's job is to protect the district and to make sure the district is uh you know doing the right things so that they can do uh with employees. similar situation, you know, but at the same time, you want to also keep in mind um to be empathetic to people and to understand that, you know, good people make mistakes sometimes and and they do things wrong. If it's uh something involving a child, um there's no mercy. You do what you got to do to get them out of your system. Um but, you know, I've seen a lot of things over the years. you know, coaches are always seeming to seem to be uh getting themselves in trouble
045and you know, sometimes what starts off as horse play between a a teacher and a student can turn into, you know, something bigger. I've seen that before. So, I mean, I think um I think you got to really make sure that you're, you know, listening to the council that the the district has and make sure you're you're working within those parameters to do the right thing. more 29 months. H 29 months 29. Yeah. 29. Can you provide an example of time when you had to make a difficult decision for the betterment of the school district? Um, I would say yes. Um, I think that there has been times when I've had to uh cut a program maybe that was uh popular, but at the same time, you know, was costing the district a lot of
046money and, you know, the district wasn't in in the position, you know, to have added that program in the first place. And that led, you know, to have to, you know, do a reduction force, uh, do the things that needed to be done so that, uh, you know, you could you can make sure that the greater population and and the greater, um, budget of the school district was in line. Um, and I'm thinking there was an East Lab that was cut. That was that was tough because I was, you know, a big proponent of East Lab. still think it's a it's a really good thing for kids to be involved in, but at the time in the district I was in, you know, we didn't have we probably shouldn't have added it in the first
047place. It took a lot to maintain it. You know, had an extra teacher. Um, so you had to you had to kind of look at things and say, "All right, this is what we're going to cut." Um, you know, you have to have the 38 units, you have to have your four AP courses according to the standards. Uh but there's things outside the standards that you know according to the the uh accreditation standards you don't have to have and you know that's the first place to look whenever you're going to do some you know some cutting um you know you can take your high school schedule lay it out basically you know here's your 38 units here's your 4 AP everything else you know subject to to do what needs to be done uh for
048the district if you're you on some serious financial problems and you need to make some cuts. Um I've been in two different districts that had some financial issues that I came into and uh both of them were able to be helped by using the things from fiscal services uh at the state um you know the department I think now that Dr. Saunders runs and there's some things that they're going to do if you get close to fiscal distress, you know, to kind of work you through those things. Um, I think that if you've kind of had some experience with those in the past and you start making those uh changes before they get involved, so to speak, that's that's can be a good thing to be seen that you're doing the right things uh from
049a fiscal services standpoint. Last question is why do you believe you are the best candidate for this position as a school superintendent? Well, I think it's experience uh throughout the years. Um again, I've had the opportunity to be with two different school districts that had some serious financial problems. Uh and I was able to work with them uh to get them to a better place. Both of those districts are still around today and still thriving. Um, you know, I was superintendent up in the mountains and near Mount Judy. uh they were just about to shut the doors on that school whenever I went up there and um I had the opportunity to start a u digital learning program that helped them reach out to a lot of homeschool students, bring them into into the district
050and you know provide some more revenue for the school and u you know today they're kind of seen as the leader in distance learning around the state. I'm proud of that and I believe that, you know, unfortunately there's only one way to fix a school budget. You know, that is, you know, expenditures versus revenue and you got to figure out how to get one, you know, bigger than the other one. And that's that's where you have to look and and and it's and it's difficult, you know, and and it's not popular. Um, so I think I've had enough experience throughout the years to understand that uh to not take things personal when you start making those decisions and that you know you're going to you're going to upset people and um you know I think
051the biggest thing is to work with the board uh to make sure that everybody's on the same page because it gets a lot easier you know when you stick together and you know back to things that need to be done. All right, that concludes all the the public part of the uh interview. U this point we will uh proceed to uh executive session [Music] 78. Glad to have you this evening. Glad to be here. This be two-part uh two-part interview uh this evening. The first part is going to be conducted public. Uh we have 10 questions we're going to be asking you. The second part uh will be in executive session. So the first part uh we're just going to ask you 10 questions and uh you should have some water and peppermints and we'll
052go we have an hour for each interview. U they haven't been taking that long but uh you have all the time you want to question. So if you're ready, we'll go ahead. I'm ready whenever you are. Start. First question is u how would you handle budget constraints while maintaining highquality education standards? Well, I mean first you have to understand it's always kids first. So that's where the money needs to go. Uh and so you work around that part of it to make sure that the teachers have what they need to teach. so the kids can learn and then you have to cut stuff sort of around the edges um to make all that happen. Uh I can tell you that uh when I was at White Hall I walked into a situation where they'd had
053three years in a row of deficit spending. Uh the last year that was about $900,000 uh which is not good. That gets phone calls from the state for you. Uh, and so before I ever got there, I'd already gotten some of those. And so we had to work around making sure that we got that done. Uh, and didn't deficit spin again cuz that fourth year gets you into you just don't even want to go there. So, uh, we managed to finish that my first year there in the black. Uh, and never had any problems after that as far as that part of it goes. But you got to be very efficient. You got to look at your staffing because that's where 75 to 80% of your cost is. Uh and depending on what your situation
054is as far as enrollment is concerned, if you're losing enrollment that you're going to have to make some cuts. Uh we were very fortunate to be able to do a lot of that through attrition. Didn't have to riff anybody or anything like that. But uh we had to make sure that we were running as efficiently as we possibly could uh to make that happen. And so that's what we did. Question number two, we got what strategies have you used to improve student achievement in your previous role? So, what strategy that strategies have you used to improve student achievement in your previous role? Well, we we spent a lot of time on professional development and training our teachers uh in effective instruction. uh had the opportunity when I was building principal to work with Bob Marzano
055uh when he worked on the book What Works in Classroom Instruction. Uh in fact, my school was one of the ones that was used in that book uh for that. And so my staff was all trained on all the most effective instructional strategies. And so uh we've implemented that everywhere I've been. We did that when I was at Bryant. We did when I was at Paris. Uh we did when I was at Whiteall. Uh Benton, I didn't take your curriculum instruction at Benton. So I didn't deal in that particular area. But that's one of the things that we made sure that our staff knew what was effective, what worked, and what didn't work. So, we weren't spending time on things that didn't weren't in the kids' best interest. Question number three, how do you ensure
056that all students receive equal education opportunities? We have a high poverty level here in school district. So how do you ensure that all students receive equal education opportunities? Well, I think you have to make it available to the students uh and encourage them to do that. You know, there there's a lot of districts and I've worked in some where uh the status quo was to sort of direct some kids away from it. Uh I tended to want to direct all kids towards it if they couldn't handle the curriculum that was there. So I'm talking about AP and those kinds of things. Uh I would prefer that child go and try it and see because a lot of times they can do a lot more than what they think they can. Uh and and so instead
057of saying well let's hold them back I was more let's see what they can do if they need to back off and we can back them back out but let's at least give them the opportunity to try to prove that they can do something. So that's kind of been my philosophy about that. We've had full arrays of AP classes when I was high school principal in Paris. Uh that was one of the problems that they had um was losing students because of it is they didn't have those classes available to them. So we put them all in uh and rearranged schedules and did what we need to do. And then the second part of that was getting kids in those classes because then you have to encourage them to actually go take classes to fill
058them up because obviously if you're going to spend that kind of money for a section of AP classes, you can't have 10 kids in there. You need 15 or 20 to make it worthwhile to be able to do that financially. So, uh, we worked with parents to get them in, make sure that we could help them. We provided the supports that we needed to provide, uh, to make sure that they could be successful in there. Uh, and again with instructional strategy, training and things like that to try to make sure that they could be success or have success in those classes. Question number four, how do you evaluate the performance of principles and other administrators within the district? I think you have to be where they are. Um, you're not going to be able to
059evaluate them sitting in an office over here. You're going to have to be out in the building where they're at and seeing what they're doing. Uh, you're going to have to have meetings with them to discuss what's going on in their building. Uh, and just be involved. Uh, and I think you ask a lot of questions uh of staff and their parents and uh those types of things to see what's going on in those buildings. Uh, I like to wear out shoes. Uh, I do a lot of walking uh in buildings. Uh, one, I like to be around kids. Uh that's the fun part about education is being around the kids and so uh that gives you an opportunity to do that but also will tell you that uh it was not unusual for them
060to see me in classrooms as a building administrator and I may show up at any time any one of the campuses just never really had a schedule that people could follow cuz if they could follow it they kind of dog pony show and I didn't really care for a dog pony show too much so I didn't drive around in different vehicles every once in a while just cuz they couldn't Rick's coming. Five. What steps would you take to address low teacher morale or high turnover rates? Well, that I mean that's tough and it's it's happening everywhere uh at this point in time because educators for several years now have just been beaten on our um you know I think you try to work to find things that will be important to them. Uh and and
061again be out there where they're at. Be in their shoes with them. I will tell you that I've spent the last two weeks looking hamburgers uh for lunches for staffs at all of our campuses. We got three more we got to do this coming week at the end of the week where we did for teacher appreciation superintendent and the three assistant superintendents all went to each campus and cooked lunch for everybody. Uh all staff not just teachers but everybody. Uh we have spent a lot of time trying to again make sure we're as efficient as we possibly can so that we can put money in salary schedule and those types of things. Uh to do that uh you know and it's not that money is everything but you want people to feel appreciated for what
062they do. Uh we're one of the few districts that actually kept the traditional salary schedule uh where you paid for education as well as experience and we had to compress down the first part of that experience part a little bit to make the $50,000 work and all of that. Uh but we promised our teachers that we would come back and as we go through the years we would address that to get it back so those first eight steps are back like the rest of them are. And to this point we've been able to do that. Uh we're not we're about halfway there on getting it all resolved, but uh everything we've had we've worked with staff to make sure that's what they wanted us to do and that's what we've done and try to help
063six. What describe your experience with facilities management and capital improvement projects? Well, I mean, I've done just about everything you can do. We have We just are finishing up uh the second school campus at Benton that I've been involved in since I've been there. We're building a brand new middle school at Mountain View. Uh we had just opened a brand new elementary school at Mountain View. Uh both of those will hold almost 1,000 students each. Uh when I was at White Hall superintendent, we built a 17 classroom addition for the softball field on the uh high school campus, built a new PE gym, re-roofed every building in the district, put HVAC in every building in the district. I went through that. Uh I at Bethl Middle School when I was at Bryant, I helped design
064that campus all the way through to the opening of it as well as Hurricane Creek Elementary School. even when I was a principal in Wisconsin, I was on the design team for my own middle school, which was the the last middle school that they built uh from start to finish. So, had lots of experience in doing all that and working with our facilities folks. Uh we used Dr. Stein to help us uh with the state requirements and some of that part of it. Uh when I was in White Hall, I did most of that myself as well to go through and uh and do that. We had a consultant to kind of help with it, but we designed the plan and put the program together, worked with the architect for all the designs. So, what
065role do extracurricular activities play in well-rounded education? I think they're extremely important. Uh, I had three kids. All three of my kids were involved in everything that they could be involved in. Um, you know, I mean, I had one really, really good athlete. Uh, I had one that was pretty good and I had one that wanted to be, but he just didn't quite get the ability that the other two unfortunately got, but he knew more about it than any of the others did. And actually, is coaching it now. Uh, but you know, I to say that they were also all in the choir. Uh, he did that. My wife is a band person, so uh you know, now I can't carry a tune in a bucket, but uh you know, every time they do a
066halftime performance, I'd have look that good because I wasn't real sure uh if it was or wasn't. But we made sure that we had uh those programs available for those kids because there's a lot of kids that's what brings them to school. That's what keeps them in school, uh is having something to be part of. Uh and I think you have to try to give them as many of those opportunities as you can. Uh when I was at Whiteall, we put in a volleyball program uh for the first time. Uh like I said, we built a softball field so we could get them back on campus. Uh doing that uh and and made sure that we had as many opportunities uh as we possibly could. If you ever been to White Hall, you know Happenings
067is a huge thing. We went to the Pine Blood Convention Center every year and they put on basically a Broadway production uh over there that they now get to do in that new auditorium that they just got built after I left. Um, you know, all of those things are extremely important. Band is extremely important. Uh, the quiz bowl is extremely important. There there's a lot of kids that need to find a niche somewhere, keep them into school, keep them active and involved. So, I think you have to give them those opportunities. describe your approach to handling disciplinary issues involving students or staff. Well, I would like to tell you I've never had any of those problems. Unfortunately, we we we do uh you know, with students, you know, I'm pretty much a by the book
068type person. You know, there's a policy manual, there's laws, and that's what we go by. Uh, and you know, the board sets up and approves uh the handbooks and we're going to follow those handbooks. Uh, you know, I've told lots of parents and I've had some come in that were mad as all get out and say, "You talk to me about the policy or what's happening all you want to, but that's gone through a process that's got it to this point where that's what it says in that handbook and that's what we're going to do." Uh, and that principal doesn't have the ability to change that. Uh, I don't have the ability to change that. We're going to follow what is there. I will also tell you I'm very big on chain of command. Uh
069there are steps they need to go through and that needs to be resolved back at the lowest possible level. Uh and you they work their way up the chain uh to get there. You know, most of the time my experience people want to be heard. Uh and if you give them that opportunity that satisfies most of it, there's going to be some it doesn't matter what you say or do, they're not going to be happy uh with the outcome of it, but at least they they should get that chance to be have a chance to be heard by somebody. uh in dealing with staff, same thing. Uh we have rules and guidelines that we have to go by and if we have folks that are not following it, we're going to follow up with it
070and do that. I've had to terminate employees. Uh I've had to suspend employees uh for different things. Um if you look me up for a long time, if you looked up Larry Smith Whiteall and teacher, the second thing that would pop up was one of my staff members at Whiteall that was having an inappropriate relationship with a child. Uh we took them straight to the state board, got their license. There were charges filed against them. We testified to what we knew about it. Uh they ended up losing their license. Never spent a day in jail. You should have, but that's not the school's part. That's the prosecutor and the the jury's part for that. But I think you have to do those thing. You have to hold people to a standard and you follow through
071on what your policies and guidelines say you're going to do. [Music] All right. Can you provide an example of a time when you had to make a difficult decision for the betterment of the school district? A really really ugly one. Yeah. Uh right after we passed the first mill in White Hall. Uh, and it was always designed to be a two-part program. We were going to take care of the classroom stuff first and then the auditorium and performing arts and all that was going to come second. Um, the board, we had a training with Beardsley came in and did a board training on finance. And after that meeting was over with, uh, and understand that White Hall is made up of two communities, BC, White Hall and Redfield. And the board was five members from
072Whiteall and two members from Redfield. Uh, the two members from Redfield were not at that meeting uh, at that training session. and the other five from Whiteall uh knew that we were about to start that second phase. The millillage was going to be coming up and so they wanted to have a conversation about whether or not we needed to continue with Redfield Middle School. Now, Redfield Middle School had about 106 kids in it. Uh and it had class in it about half a day. The other half a day, those kids were in Whiteall already at extracurricular activities and stuff like that. Uh and the board wanted to know how much it cost to operate that campus. said, "Okay." So, we looked into it and understand that that consolidation actually happened in 1948. It wasn't a
0732003 uh with this last goround. That would have been going on for a long time. And there was a lot of bad feelings that had occurred over the years because of it. Uh which I understood. Uh but so so that's fine. I'll go back and do the analysis on it, which we did. Uh it was costing the district about a million dollars a year to operate that campus. we could literally take those kids and move them to Whiteall in the facility that we had with the staff that we had and did not have to have the other uh and so the board made a decision uh that they wanted closed. Now, and I remember this to the very end, the board president telling me that night that that decision was going to be made that
074they would be mad, but they'd be over in about 2 weeks. No, not not even close. which I I knew but before you did but then I told him that it's going to take a long time to get over this. Uh and so we went through uh the process guys. I got inspected by everybody from ATQ to the health department to legislative audit and you name it. They tried to throw anything and everything in to see if they could make something stick. They did not find anything that we had done inappropriate or wrong. Uh went through the budget. We showed them the numbers. Everything was laid out. Uh but about 6 months later, it was finally all over and done with after a trip to court and some other stuff uh to to get it
075finished. But I also will tell you that's why I'm probably not in White Hall to this day. Uh is because uh we ran two million campaigns after that. Uh and both of them went down two to one. And guess where the two where the one came from was Redfield. They voted I think I got three votes in Redfield uh in one of the elections. I don't think I got any in the other one in favor of the millillage. and and it was a great program to put in place and was great for the kids and they all agreed to that but they did not want that there and I told the board at that time I said as long as I'm here you're not going to get that passed and you're not going to get
076that built for those kids and that was part of the reason why it was time for me to to move and I did and they got it passed on the next election and got the stuff built and so it's all there now but uh it actually was my plan that was used to to put all that stuff in place so it's kind of nice to go by and see it all done now uh and have a chance to do that. But, uh, you know, it was a tough decision and it was hard and it was hard in that community, uh, to be able to do that and have to do that and go through it. And, you know, like I said, there had been trust, mistrust for years about going and there had been superintendent
077after superintendent who had passed it and kicked it down the road and kicked it down the road and kicked it down the road. Uh, it just so happened that I was the one that finally had to say, you know, this is not what's best for kids u, and not what's best for the district. And so, That's a decision that we made and that was a recommendation that I made. Uh my administrative assistant was from Redfield. She was born and bred there, lived there her whole whole life. She came in and asked me, she said, "Are you going to be upset with me if I campaign against this uh uh you know, closing the school?" And I said, "No, ma'am. As long as you won't be upset with me if I make a recommendation to close
078it." And so, we kind of had to agree to disagree on that uh part of it, but u you know, it was what was needed to be done. and it had long since needed to be done. It finally just got done that at that particular time. That was probably the toughest 6 months to go through was dealing all that went with that. I have a drink on that. Uh didn't get a lot of sleep during that six months. I can assure you. All right, number 10. Last question. Why do you believe you are the best candidate for this position as school superintendent? Well, I I don't know that I'm the best candidate because I don't know who your other three candidates are. U you know what I will tell you is I bring a wealth
079of experience. Uh this is my 36 years in education. 32 of that's been in administration. Uh I've been a middle school principal, a middle school assistant principal, junior high principal, high school principal, assistant superintendent two different times. Uh superintendent um 20 years of central office experience. I spent two years at the administrator association uh training principles all across the state. Uh, in fact, I've trained about 400 principles and assistant principles uh that were named during my time in doing that. Uh, I've been in charge of every part of the school program that you can be in charge of uh at one time either as assistant superintendent or and as superintendent. You're always in charge of everything ultimately. But, uh, so I do bring a lot of experience. I also bring a lot of passion for
080want to make a difference in kids. And that's something that is uh is still true with me uh is, you know, I still think I can make a difference in the lives of kids. And when I quit believing that, I'll get out cuz it'll be well past time at that point in time. But uh I like working with kids. I like to see kids be successful. We thank you for coming at the formal open part of the uh interview. U second part being executive session. So, at this point, we will go into executive session. 7:59, vice president of the board. This is a two-part interview this evening. Uh, you're our fourth candidate to interview this evening. Uh, the first part, the interview, you got interview. Mhm. It's going to be done in the public and
081then the second part be done in executive session. Okay. We got uh team interview questions. We're asking all the county the same questions and um should have you need some water? I'm good. Need some water? You going to have application? Yeah. All right. So, u you're ready. We can go ahead and get started. We've got an hour per interview, but get done early. We get done early. So, if you're ready, we'll go ahead and get started. So the first question is how would you handle budget constraints while maintaining high quality education standards? So the number one budget question and the number one thing you always budget is of course salaries. Uh so um in the situation where you're staffed to the point where you meet standards um that's according to the matrix where you need
082to be. Um anything above that you can add programs or of course that cost and it it puts you in a budget restraint type situation. uh anytime you're in that situation, uh one of the things that you have to do is make sure you have high quality educators. If you have highquality educators, you have high quality education, no matter what your budget restraints are. Um you have to make sure that the educators that you have on staff are doing or providing your students with high level education. um and making sure that they have the resources to be able to do that. And so the only way to do that is to number one uh look at the curriculum, sit down with the educator, find out what they need to be able to be effective in
083the classroom, make sure you have those supplies uh provided for the educator and provide as many programs as you can. [Music] Question number two, what strategies have you used to improve student achievement in in previous roles? So, a superintendent in the old system, I mean, you have different systems. So, every time you have a new commissioner, you change systems, you have a new uh way of testing, uh new standards, all that. uh in the previous standard your ninth and tth graders took the same test uh in mathematics. So you had uh algebra and geometry in 9th grade, algebra and geometry in 10th grade. Um so if you went by the traditional set uh which is what we were doing at my previous school then ninth graders you took algebra 1 which means that when you
084took the end of course exam that you didn't know any of the geometry on it. So you didn't do well on that. 10th grade you took geometry which if you can remember all that algebra you learned which algebra one is the number one failed subject in any high school in the state of Arkansas. Um, so what we did is we took our upper level students that can track like that and score high, we put them on the regular track. Um, for our students that were struggling through mathematics, and I would have been one of these students uh in high school, but um, we made them take algebra A, geometry A in 9th grade, algebra B, geometry B in 10th grade. It allowed our teachers to spread out the teaching over a two-year period of time
085instead of one. And then they knew algebra, geometry both years and could review that. And so our scores went from being bottom of the barrel scores to top level scores. Uh all my schools across my whole resume have gone from lower level uh grades to higher level grades. at Barton. We were D schools in my elementary and high school when I got there. When I left, we had won 13 OEP awards in 5 years. And uh we were B schools. I mean, I can talk strategies and I can go like system by system, but you probably don't want a six-hour lecture. [Music] Three. Uh, how do you ensure all students receive equal education opportunities? Here at England School, we have a lot our poverty levels, you know, for rather high. So, how do you ensure
086that all students receive equal educational opportunities? It's simple. Each I mean, every single student should have access to, you know, what you offer. I mean, uh, that's pretty basic. U, you got to make sure, what you really need to do is make sure that every student has a student success plan and a graduation plan. Um, very much like colleges do. And, uh, you need to have different pathways for kids to graduate. And, uh, depending on what that kid wants to do, you need to have a pathway for that. And so, at Barton, one of the we we provided four pathways. Okay. So, we had a pathway for kids who just wanted to get a high school diploma and get out. And that's fine. I mean, like I got criticized a little bit for that, but
087I'll tell you this. Sometimes when you're the first person out of your family to graduate with high school diploma, that's a big deal. And you would have you have more of those kind of kids in the Delta than what you think. Um, so they may be the first. And if you're going to get out of poverty, you have to stair step out of poverty. It's not just one generation all of a sudden you're out of poverty when something happens you stair step out of it. So you may be the first to get a high school diploma. The next you know your kids may be the next and they go to a community college and then their kids go to four-year college so on so forth and they move themselves up with each level. Um my
088family was very much like that from my great-grandfather to me. Um, I mean, I'm the highest educated person in my family, but I didn't get there just because. I mean, I got there because, you know, each generation stairstepped them their way out. But, um, the second level, you need to have a pathway for kids who just want careers and they want to graduate and go to maybe a community college. The third path is the definitely a CTE program or a community college technical school which is for higher paying jobs now and then the third is a 4-year college or beyond. And we have advanced tracks in that as well. So if you wanted to go to Harvard or Stanford or whatever, we can provide those opportunities for those kids, which you don't have many of
089those kids, but occasionally you have one or two and you need to have a pathway for them. How do you evaluate the performance of principles and other administrators within the district? So the first thing principles I mean I always sit down with my principles and what I want them to have in front of them is their data. I want to see your school in a data form. I want to know that you've broken down different parts of your school and you can show me those different parts by looking at data. Uh once you show me that, then what we're going to do is look at what the weaknesses of your school are and then put together a plan to be able to improve those weaknesses. And so once that is constructed, then you evaluate your
090principles not only of the daily running of your school. I mean that's a given, but also the success of improving the weaknesses of your school. What steps would you take to address low teacher morale or high turnover rates? High turnover rates are a symptom of pretty much a a bad environment. I mean, if you have high turnover, you've got a bad cultural environment for whatever reason. So, what I would say is you need to find out what's causing that cultural environment and then you need to put a plan in place to fix it. Okay. describe your experience with facilities management and capital improvement projects. So any kind of projects you may have been involved in. So, one of the things in my packet, you'll see, I mean, we were on the cover of uh one
091of the magazines. Uh we passed Big Millage u 12.9 new mills plus uh well a reauthorization of what is it 3.6 something like that. Anyway, about 16 and 12 meals between the new mills and reauthorization. Uh we expanded our campus by 7 acres. I built a brand new high school, built onto our elementary. Um, we built parking lots. We built indoor practice facility. We turfed and redid our stadium. We renovated our gymnasium. I built a baseball and softball fields on grant funds. I had an admin building constructed, which that was more creative. So, uh, if you know the rules, uh, then, uh, you can get creative and save taxpayers a lot of money. Uh, we had a 3 acre track that joined ours. Um, I cut a deal with a farmer, um, and, uh, he
092helped me pass my millillage. Once we got our millage pass, he built me my facility and then he sold me the we came to a land price agreement. I gave him what he wanted for the land, which is probably a little bit over market value, but he built my building at cost. And so we save taxpayers about $1.2 million doing that. And we got three acres and a whole brand new facility. U so I mean I can do anything from reading blueprints, passing millages to I mean I've done all of that. change orders. What role do extracurricular activities play in well-rounded education? Uh if if you have a well-run school, extracurricular goes hand in hand with academics. Always. Always. Um if you're I'm just going to tell you if you're ball teams are winning, you
093have a better year than if your ball teams are losing. all around. [Music] So, describe your approach to handling disciplinary issues involving students or staff. Uh my thing is fair and consistent. Whatever you're going to enforce, enforce it fairly. Enforce it consistently. Um, there are things that you probably have in your handbook that are hard to enforce. I mean, just because you make a rule doesn't make make it something that's easily enforced. I'll give you some examples of this. Um, you can also policywise create your own problems. Um, so I'll give you two examples of this. So, at Barton, uh, we had a rule that you had to have your tuck shirt tucked in at all times. Okay? So on the surface it sounds good. You know your kids going to walk around with shirt
094shirts tucked in all of that. Okay. So um if you have a sweatshirt or a hoodie on and that's the rule. How well do you think kids are going to tuck in a hoodie? All right. So but the rule is you have to have your shirt no matter what it is tucked in. So, you know, you can create your own problems doing that. Um, I had another situation at another school where um, uh, girls were allowed to wear earrings. Uh, guys were not allowed to wear earrings or jewelry of any kind. Um, so first period I would spend probably 45 minutes of my morning uh dealing with kids who had nose rings, kids who had two earrings instead of one earring, kids who had, you know, um, so like I said, my main thing is
095be fair and consistent and if you're going to have policies, make sure they're policies that can be enforced and there are policies that are going to further education, not detract from it. Um, our main goal as a school is to educate kids. So my thing is really unless there's something that's taken away from the safety of kids or if there's something that's taken away from uh kids being able to learn in the classroom or providing a very manageable situation within the school then really it shouldn't be a rule. That's my philosophy. Can you provide an example of a time when you had to make a difficult decision for the betterment of the school district? I have fired people. Um, without going into details, personnel, I had a situation where I had a supervisor who got
096hooked on an illegal substance and that started causing problems. So, I had to uh go through the process to terminate that employee. um it wasn't something that was, you know, a great situation to go through, but you know, you want to help people, but at the same time, you're not going to allow that around around kids. And so, uh that was a difficult situation. I'm sure I've been through several more. Number 10. Why do you believe you you are the best candidate for this position as a school superintendent? So, if you look at my resume, you'll see that I've bounced around a bunch of places. There's a reason for that. I don't just stay places to stay places. I get bored very easily. Um, the reason my resume reads the way it reads is because
097I was, well, in the beginning I was a state champion coach, teacher. When I got into administration, I wanted to make sure that kids had the best that they could have. Um, after I reformed my first school, um, I went to a second one and I got to reform it. Once that word got out that I could do that, I had superintendents who would call me and they would want me to come in. And so I would come in for a year or two, fix what they needed fixed, and then bounce. When you're the fixer, you don't really stay around very long because you're going to make a lot of people unhappy um just because you're going to do your job. And once you get things fixed and turned around if they'll send in somebody
098behind you to like run things um and manage them. But a lot of people run things in the ground and it takes uh people who know what they're doing to get them out. All right. So that concludes the uh interview open. So the second part of the interview will be done section. You stay. Do you have a bottle of water? 10:12 make a motion. Yeah, I'd like to make a motion. Um, I'd like to make a motion as a representative of of the England School District u to employ Judy Webb Hubble, Dr. Judy Webb Hubble as the superintendent of the England School District for the England School District from July 1 of 2025 through June the 30th of 2027 on a 240day agreement who s shall serve as the school district's chief administrative officer and
099perform all duties and possess all powers granted by applicable Arkansas law rules or regulations and board policy until the until such time as this agreement expires or is terminated. The superintendent a superintendent agrees accept accept the employment and faithfully discharge the duties incident to it. You put something in there about the her salary based on our England handbook or whatever. The salary is based on the what's in the England handbook? what's stated in the current England U [Music] handbook stop for the car is stated and she will be issued a stipen based on $500 $500 for the uh vehicle stipen and $100 $100 for the uh cell phone. I'm going to make a motion to motion be second. Second time any discussion all in favor say I. Oppose 7. Want to make a motion to
100adjurnn. I make that motion by Scott. Second by M. All in favor say I. Hey.