Mike James
The Independent
LLOYD A —
A special committee recommended four candidates for superintendent to the Greenup County Board of Education Monday, but not before the board chairman asked to see all applications that had been submitted.
Candidates recommended by the committee included:
‰Steve Hall, the interim superintendent.
‰Barbara Cook, principal of Wurtland Elementary.
‰James Kemp, superintendent of Webster County schools.
‰Donald Tetrick, assistant superintendent of Pendleton County schools.
The committee attended the Monday meeting to reveal its findings, which it had kept under wraps. Board members did not know which candidates the committee had settled on.
Committee member Anita Prater was preparing to present the list when board chairman Jeff Hurn said he would prefer that the board accept all the applications before seeing the list.
The board’s attorney, Jim Lyon Jr., suggested the board discuss the committee list in a closed session before considering any other candidates.
The board did so for about half an hour. Afterward, in a statement read by board member Kelly Adkins, the board said it will consider and interview all four of the committee’s candidates but reserves the right to interview others.
State law governs the formation and task of the screening committee, which is made up of parents, teachers, administrators and support staff. Its job is to study all applicants for the position and make recommendations to the board.
The board, however, has the final say in hiring a superintendent. It may hire applicants the committee didn’t recommend or it may seek more applications if none of the candidates meets its approval.
Some of the committee members were unhappy that Hurn had asked for other names before seeing the recommendations. “It made me feel they were backing out of the entire process,” said Lynn Miller, who is a special education teacher at Greenup County High School. “I had the feeling they weren’t going to look at the applications that we’d given them.”
Hurn said after the closed session that he asked because he had been under the impression the board would not otherwise have been able to see the other applications.
MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2652.
