FAYETTEVILLE — The School Board spent Monday evening interviewing a second candidate interested in the superintendent's job to replace Vicki Thomas who is leaving in June.
Tony Thurman, superintendent of the Cabot School District, was interviewed in executive session for about two hours Monday. No action was to be taken at the meeting.
Monday was the final day for applications to be received for the superintendent's job. Thurman was one of eight applications received as of March 20, the date of the most recent regular School Board meeting.
"There is no final determination and no other interviews scheduled," Hudson said. The board wants to review all the applications after the deadline.
Meanwhile, the Greenland School Board on Monday began sifting through the dozen applications it has received to fill its superintendency when Charles Cudney leaves at the end of his contract year.
Thomas plans to return to Texas for family reasons. Cudney will become executive director of the Northwest Arkansas Education Services Cooperative in Farmington. Both resignations are effective June 30.
Thurman said his interest in the Fayetteville job stems from the opportunity to come to Northwest Arkansas, as a growing region, and his experience as an Arkansas school administrator at the elementary, middle school and high school levels. He has been in Cabot since 2000, first as middle school principal, then as high school principal. He was named superintendent in 2007 when Frank Holman left to return to Lincoln to become superintendent of that district.
"I have experience in Arkansas and am familiar with Arkansas laws and the Legislature, the ups and downs," Thurman said. "I know the challenges."
A decision to move to Fayetteville will be a family one, including his daughter, Ryane, 14, and son, Rhett, 12, he said.
He was an elementary principal in McGehee before joining the Cabot district. His early career was as a teacher and coach in Crossett.
Holman, who has since retired from Lincoln, said Monday that Thurman was a good communicator with his staff and the community.
The School Board interviewed Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell in early February, after Kimbrell expressed an interest in the job. However, he later decided to stay in that position.
The Greenland School Board selected four applicants to interview Thursday and Monday, Cudney said. They are Larry Ben, current superintendent in Decatur; Rick Gales, coordinator of federal programs and technology in Greenland; Paul E. Shelton, Caddo Hills superintendent; and David Tollett, assistant to the director of federal programs at the Arkansas Department of Education.
NW News on 04/01/2014