Parents blast Coast school board’s closed-door vote for new superintendent
The Harrison County school board interviewed three final candidates for superintendent and voted to offer one of them the job in executive session Wednesday evening.
That completed the last steps in a search process some parents have criticized as opaque and lacking opportunities for community input.
The candidates interviewed were:
- Dr. Donna Boone, superintendent of Forrest County Agricultural High School and former superintendent of Quitman School District
- Dr. Christy Maulding, deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction at Starkville Oktibbeha School District
- Dr. Christopher Williams, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction at Ocean Springs School District
The board’s vote in executive session will not become public until after a contract is complete.
“It will be released through the media, so stay tuned,” board president Dr. Barbara Thomas told assembled parents when the board returned to their meeting room around 8 p.m.
Thomas said the vote was unanimous.
The applicants are vying to replace Roy Gill, who announced his retirement on March 2. The chosen candidate will lead Mississippi’s fourth-largest school district and the largest on the Coast, with about 14,000 students.
The candidates’ names were listed in a supporting document uploaded to the district’s BoardBook page, where it publishes meeting agendas.
Before the first interview began, some parents and community members spoke during the public comment period to reiterate concerns about the superintendent search process.
Gary Fredericks, president of the Gulfport chapter of the NAACP, urged the board not to vote on Wednesday night right after interviews. He asked them to delay their vote after the interviews in order to allow more time for public input.
“I’m not here to reprimand you,” he said to the board. “I’m here to ask for collective engagement... please review the opportunity to allow the school teachers, members of the community, the taxpayers, to engage in questioning of your final candidates. That’s all we’re here to ask for.”
Thomas responded that parent input is “very influential” in the process. She said she had gotten input from parents and based most of her interview questions on their suggestions.
“I do not take this lightly, the responsibility we have,” Thomas said. “Because it is the most important responsibility we’ve had since I came on this board.”
Board members Rena Wiggins and David Ladner said they, too, had spoken with parents about their hopes for the new superintendent.
Criticisms of the process
Lack of public input has been a major criticism of the process. While other large districts in the country begin the superintendent search process with public meetings to hear priorities and preferences from parents, teachers and students, Harrison County did not.
The initial applicants were narrowed to seven and then to three finalists by a committee that included Superintendent Roy Gill and was led by Assistant Superintendent Mitchell King. Three board members delegated a community member to serve on this committee in their place; Gill told the Sun Herald that provided opportunity for public input. One of the delegates is Gill’s brother-in-law.
The names of the committee members were never published by the district because, King told the Sun Herald, they didn’t want the members to be inundated with calls.
Fredericks said that local elected officials including Councilwoman Ella Holmes-Hines, Councilman Kenneth “Truck” Casey and Supervisor Kent Jones all shared his concerns and had raised them with the school board. He said he had gotten numerous calls from parents who wanted more opportunity to share their ideas with the board.
The interviews were conducted in executive session in order to discuss an employment matter.
But attorney Henry Laird, who specializes in open meetings and records laws, said the law did not require that.
“It’s generally referred to the personnel exception,” he said. “Like all the other exceptions, it does not require an executive session, it just allows executive session.”
Other school districts have opened superintendent interviews to the public.
Who are the candidates?
The final candidates for the position have a range of experiences around the state.
- Dr. Donna Boone led Quitman School District, with about 1,000 students, until resigning in 2017 to move to the Coast, where her husband is an educator. Later that year, she became superintendent of Forrest County Agricultural High School, which has 576 students.
- Dr. Christy Maulding has served as an administrator at Starkville Oktibbeha, with 4,900 students, since 2017. Prior to that, she worked as Hinds Community College Work-Based Learning and Internship Coordinator. She also worked as a building principal and assistant superintendent in the Rankin County School District, the state’s third-largest with more than 18,000 students.
- Dr. Christopher Williams has worked as assistant superintendent at Ocean Springs, with 5,700 students, since 2013. Before that, he was a principal at St. Martin North Elementary in Jackson County.
