Superintendent interviews complete
The Hartselle Board of Education is hoping to make a decision on a new school superintendent by its June 17 meeting.
The Hartselle Board of Education finished interviewing three of its four superintendent candidates on Thursday night, after speaking with Sandra Spivey, director of secondary Education for the Madison County School System in Huntsville.
Last week, the board met with Mountain Brook High School Principal Vic Wilson and Camille Wright, director of instruction for the Madison City Board of Education.
The board was also scheduled to interview Eddie Ingram, superintendent of Franklin County Schools in Louisburg, N.C. He is also a finalist for another superintendent’s position and his interview on June 4 was cancelled.
However, some board members have not completely ruled out an interview with Ingram.
“I still consider him a finalist until he takes the other job,” school board member Randy Sparkman said Friday. “I feel like any of the three candidates that we’ve interviewed could do the job, but we want to consider all of our options to make the best choice for our school system.”
BOE member Jennifer Sittason said she also feels any of the three candidates could do a good job.
“I really enjoyed the interview process because we got to see them interact outside of the interview,” Sittason said. “I learned a lot through this process. I think we now have to select the person who is the right fit for Hartselle and our schools.”
Both Sparkman and Sittason said the board is in the process of checking the references of the candidates. After some deliberation, they hope they can make a decision swiftly.
“I’m hoping we’ll be able to make a decision by our next board meeting on June 17,” Sittason said.
Sittason said she is hoping the new superintendent will have input in selecting the new chief school financial officer. The board has not yet set up interviews with the three CSFO finalists, Jonathan Craft, Maria Glover and Tina Parris.
Until then, the board is continuing to use the services of Lisa McMurray from Finatra Inc. in Athens to handle the system’s finances until the CSFO is selected.
“If our new superintendent has a strong background in finances, we could possibly have a CSFO with less experience,” Sittason said. “However, if we don’t have a superintendent who has a strong background in finances, we will probably need a much more experienced CSFO.
“So we also hope that our new superintendent could have some input in selecting a new CSFO,” she added. “I think Lisa has done a great job handling the CSFO duties. I wish we could hire her, but she is not one of the finalists.”
