The Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School Board has voted to begin contract negotiations with an applicant for the job of district superintendent.
The 3-2 vote was made during closed session following Friday’s special called board meeting, said Samantha Milton, the board’s president.
Milton declined to say who voted for or against starting negotiations. She also did not name the applicant, saying that person had not been notified.
Should the applicant accept the offer, the board would then make the information public, Milton said, adding that the board still needs to finalize a salary for the next superintendent.
Last summer, the board decided not to issue another contract to Dr. Mary Brown, the current and first superintendent of the consolidated district, which was formed in the summer of 2019. Brown was hired in February of that year under a three-year contract with an annual salary of $150,000. Her contract expires June 30 of this year.
The board began its search for a new superintendent last semester. Since then, Milton said, the board has interviewed eight applicants.
During the meeting’s open session, Denotris Jackson, executive director of the Mississippi School Boards Association (MSBA), a Jackson-based school board advocacy group, presented to the board a study of the district’s salaries for personnel and organizational chart.
That information was compared to data from 10 other districts across the state with enrollments similar to the almost 4,000-student Greenwood Leflore district. Those included the Grenada, Oxford and Scott County districts, among others.
The current superintendent’s salary fell right in the center compared to those in the other 10 districts, Jackson said. Five superintendents made salaries higher than Brown’s, and five others made less.
Jackson also pointed out differences between the Greenwood Leflore district’s administrative structure and those in the other districts.
For example, the Greenwood Leflore district has three assistant superintendents, whereas most others have only one. Also, the Greenwood Leflore district has an assistant director of transportation, while most other districts its size do not.
Jackson also said that since the district serves all of Leflore County, rather than just one municipality, it may need more positions.
She emphasized that MSBA was not making any recommendations to the board, only providing information as requested.
Board member Magdalene Abraham said after Jackson’s presentation that the information was “unbelievably helpful.”
Milton said after the board meeting that the point of Jackson’s presentation was to help the board find ways to save the district money due to decreasing enrollment over the years.
Earlier this month, Dr. Tim Martin, the assistant director of MSBA, presented the board with data concerning the Greenwood Leflore district.
He showed the board how enrollment has dropped over the years while the number of employed personnel has not maintained the same pace.
For the 2016-2017 school year, the combined enrollment of the Greenwood and Leflore County districts was 5,133 students with 366 instruction personnel.
There were 4,161 students and 351 personnel for the 2020-2021 school year. This school year, enrollment declined to 3,978.
From 2016 to 2021, the student enrollment fell by 19%, whereas employee reduction only fell by 4%.
Martin warned the board that should the district face any financial crisis in the future, personnel might have to be reduced in order to save the district money.
- Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
