What qualities does the Clarksdale Municipal School District have to offer to attract a prospective superintendent?
The school board discussed those very issues during last Thursday’s meeting as the search to replace superintendent Dennis Dupree, who is retiring at the end of June, is underway.
Board president H. Clay Stillions said there is not a lot of funding for school districts in the Delta.
“One of the things I’m going to be concerned about is what kind of condition is the district in building wise?” he said. “What’s my maintenance fund going to look like? That’s a major headache, as you well know, because we’ve had to deal with a lot of issues.”
The funding may not be there as much as school officials had hoped, but Dupree said the finances the district does have are managed well.
“Financially, we are decent shape,” he said. “We’re in compliance with the standpoint of standards and things. People look at that.”
Stillions said the physical aspect of the district is where it needs to be.
“We’re in very good condition,” he said. “That’s not something a prospective superintendent has got to walk in here and say, ‘Boy, I need roofs on four of my buildings. We’ve got to fix this.’ We’re in good shape.”
Stillions said there are good individuals in leadership positions throughout the district.
“Board support of administration and instruction in this district is outstanding because I sit in on training and hear other boards talking at these meetings,” he said. “One of the things I’m proudest of as a member of this board in the six plus years I’ve served, we have a great working relationship with our superintendent and with our administration throughout the district.”
Stillions is confident the district will be able to find a good superintendent to replace Dupree.
“We’re not losing a superintendent because we’re a lousy board to work with or we have a lot of problems,” Stillions said. “He’s retiring. We’re in a good position to get a top-flight superintendent that can, hopefully, take us to the next level.”
Maintaining good instructors is an issue the new superintendent will have to contend with.
“One of the biggest issues we have is retention in quality of instruction,” Stillions said. “The state is addressing some of that in proposed increases pay for teachers. So that’s going to be a help. We’re going to have to work out ways to make it easier and more attractive for them to stay as well.”
Stillions said Kirkpatrick Health & Medical Science Magnet School, which received an “A” grade from the Mississippi Department of Education, has the strongest retention of any school in the district.
“This a time to weed the garden, fertilize and get it going,” Stillions said. “This is it.”
Board vice president Delores S. Harris went through some of the steps in finding a new superintendent. The Mississippi School Board Association will be helping the district with the search.
“We need to do a stakeholder meeting with the staff, parents,” Harris said.
Dupree said he thought the school board association did that.
“We were trying to get the date in place and the location. We discussed that,” replied Harris, who discussed those issues with secretary to the superintendent Etta Turner.
Harris said George H. Oliver Elementary School would be a good place to hold the meeting for teachers and the community meeting could be at Clarksdale High School.
“Because what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to let the community be a part of the search giving us their input so that we would compile all of their concerns in our superintendent’s criteria,” Harris said.
“We’re in push now. We’re trying to make sure we have someone in place by July 1.”
Harris said the superintendent applications should be in by April 28.
As more information about the meetings are determined, Dupree said he would post it on the district’s website and Facebook page
