Coast school board chose a new superintendent. Then they suddenly changed their minds.
The Harrison County school board’s search for a new superintendent seemed to end Monday night right where it started, when the board offered the job to Assistant Superintendent Mitchell King.
King had turned down the same offer back in February, and then lead the search process for a new superintendent.
When the meeting began on Monday, King was not the board’s pick. At their meeting on March 31, minutes show, the board voted unanimously to offer the position to Dr. Christopher Williams, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction at Ocean Springs School District.
Williams was one of three finalists the board interviewed that same day, along with Dr. Christy Maulding, deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction at Starkville Oktibbeha School District, and Dr. Donna Boone, superintendent of Forrest County Agricultural High School and former superintendent of Quitman School District.
The minutes show the board voted to offer Williams a salary of $160,000, the same as what outgoing Superintendent Roy Gill earns. Williams, who has a doctorate, which typically comes with a salary premium, made a counter-offer. And that’s when the process appears to have gone off the rails.
Most of Monday’s meeting took place in executive session over nearly four hours and was not open to the public.
Board president Dr. Barbara Thomas said that because of executive session rules, she could not say much about what was said during the meeting. But she did say that the board had voted not to accept Williams’ counter-offer, and then voted to offer the position to King, who accepted, but has not yet signed a contract.
Thomas was in the minority on both votes. One board member voted with her on at least one decision, but she would not say who. That information will become public record when the meeting minutes are approved at an upcoming board meeting.
Only one parent, Angelia Adkins, was at the meeting Monday night. She said she was excited when she saw Williams there, assuming he would soon be announced as the new superintendent. But as she sat in the front lobby for hours while the board was in executive session, she could hear raised voices and what sounded like a tense disagreement.
After Williams left sometime around 9 p.m., the board came out of executive session and attorney Wynn Clark announced the basics of what had transpired: The board had made Williams an offer, Williams had made a counter-offer, the board had rejected Williams’ offer and ended negotiations, and voted to make King the district’s new superintendent. Adkins, who has been following the search process since it began, was confused.
“I’m like, ‘Huh?’” she said in an interview. “Why did this happen? When did this come about? How did his name get put in the hat?”
Clark told board members they could ignore her questions because they had been in executive session, Adkins said.
King reverses course
Gill and King did not respond to emails requesting comment on Tuesday, nor did board members David Ladner or Eric Simmons. Board member Rena Wiggins said she was unavailable Tuesday afternoon and did not respond to subsequent messages.
King, who has been assistant superintendent at the district since 1986, had been offered the job in February, according to minutes from the board meeting on Feb. 10. At that meeting, the board voted “to negotiate an offer with Roy Gill, Superintendent, and if not negotiable, offer the position to Mitchell King, Assistant Superintendent.” All board members voted for the motion except for Thomas, who abstained.
The minutes show the board then voted “to appoint a Superintendent’s Search Committee if necessary, pending the decision of Mitchell King, Asst. Superintendent.”
King turned down the offer, and the board opened a search.
King then led the search committee that reviewed applications and chose seven candidates for interviews and selected three finalists. He told the Sun Herald in March that he would not be applying for the position for which he was also helping to evaluate candidates.
It’s unclear what changed his mind on Monday night.
Harrison County School District Communications Director Trang Pham-Bui said in an email Tuesday that King had been offered the position but that a contract has not been “initiated or signed yet.”
Since no board member other than Thomas has commented publicly about the decision, the majority’s thinking remains unknown. Thomas said she did not know why the board had chosen King instead of making an offer to another finalist.
“I don’t know because I was not on that side of the vote,” Thomas said. “I was wanting to negotiate with the candidate that came out on top, Dr. Williams, but the majority chose to do otherwise. So you’d have to ask for them.”
How was the counter-offer different?
The minutes from March 31 say that the board voted to offer Williams the job of superintendent “with a three year contract term to begin on July 1, 2021 and a salary of $160,000 per year, with the stipulation that Dr. Christopher J. Williams, Sr., will move his residence to the Harrison County School District within six months after July 1, 2021; and to designate Board President Dr. Barbara Thomas and attorney Wynn E. Clark to negotiate and execute, if the offer was accepted, the Contract of Employment..”
Clark did not return a phone call requesting comment on Tuesday. Thomas declined to say what Williams’ had counter-offered. Williams did not return a phone call and message on Tuesday.
Salary may have been a sticking point. Dr. Bonita Coleman, superintendent of Ocean Springs School District where Williams now works, makes about $175,000 annually, according to GovSalaries.com.
Williams’ current salary is about $129,000, according to the website.
Superintendent salaries can vary significantly based on qualifications, experience, district size, board preferences and more.
‘That just reeks of cronyism’
Two Gulfport city council members told the Sun Herald they were not happy with the school board’s decision.
Ward 6 Councilman R.Lee Flowers said he did not understand why, if the board had not wanted to continue negotiating with Williams, it did not make an offer to one of the other finalists, instead of giving the position to the leader of the search process, who had not applied for the job.
“That just — that just reeks of cronyism,” he said. “I don’t know to put it any other way.”
“I’m old enough to remember when Dick Cheney picked himself to be George W. Bush’s vice presidential candidate,” he continued. “And that reeked then and it reeks today.”
Ward 3 Councilwoman Ella Holmes-Hines said she hopes the board will return to negotiations with Williams. She plans to attend the board meeting on April 19 and hopefully meet with district leadership before then.
“My expectation is that the school board is going to do the right thing, to honor their minutes and go into negotiations with this candidate and offer him the job that they unanimously agreed,” she said.
Adkins spent her hours at the Harrison County district building Monday night doing some work for her real estate business and texting other parents updates about what was going on. As she heard sounds of agitation inside the meeting room, but couldn’t hear what was being said, she grew increasingly frustrated.
On Tuesday, she still had more questions than answers.
“That’s why their doggone meetings out to be public,” she said. “It shouldn’t have to go into executive session for them to discuss stuff like that.”
