Wood is Beebe’s education pick

Governor offers department’s No. 2 as Kimbrell successor

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Gov. Mike Beebe is recommending that James “Tony” Wood of Searcy succeed Tom Kimbrell as state education commissioner when Kimbrell leaves next month to become superintendent of Bryant public schools.

Wood, 63, is currently second in command at the Arkansas Department of Education, which oversees the 238 school districts and nearly two dozen charter school systems that serve the state’s 475,000 public school students. His career in education spans 42 years, starting as a teacher in Beedeville.

“Tony has done a great job as deputy commissioner,” Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said Monday about filling the approching vacancy in the governor’s Cabinet. “Given the situation we’re facing, which is seven months left in our administration, he’sthe ideal person to step in there and fill out the rest of our term.”

Under Arkansas Code Annotated 6-11-102, the nine-member state Board of Education hires the education commissioner, and the governor confirms the appointment.

All nine of the current board members are Beebe appointees.

“I anticipate we will enthusiastically accept that recommendation,” Brenda Gullett of Fayetteville, chairman of the Education Board, said Monday of Beebe’s choice. She said the board’s familiarity with Wood make it unlikely that the board will even need to interview the nominee.

“No one is more qualified than Tony,” Gullett said, calling Wood “a go-to person in education.”

“When he speaks, he knows exactly what he is talking about, and he always knows exactly what is going on,” she said.

The Education Board has a two-day meeting set for 10 a.m. Thursday and 9 a.m. Friday. Employment of a new commissioner is not on the agenda. But Gullett left open the possibility that the selection could be added to the board’s list of business items.

Wood said Monday that he and the governor had a conversation last week and “I told Gov. Beebe that I would make an effort to fulfill those [commissioner] responsibilities.”

Talk Business Arkansas, an online news organization, was the first to report Monday that Wood was the governor’s choice to fill the vacancy created by Kimbrell’s departure.

Kimbrell accepted an offer to be the superintendent of the Bryant School District on April 24.

Wood and Beebe are both longtime residents of Searcy. Wood commutes daily between Searcy and the Arch Ford Education Building on the state Capitol grounds in Little Rock. Beebe previously represented the Searcy area, including the school district, in the Legislature.

Wood, who had retired as superintendent of the Searcy School District before accepting the deputy commissioner’s job in August, 2010, said Monday that he has been talking about education with Beebe for about 30 years. He considers the governor to be a friend.

Beebe’s second, four-year term of office expires in January, and he is ineligible to run for re-election. Two Democrats and two Republicans are running for election to be governor. The education commissioner serves at the pleasure of the governor, who has the choice of selecting new department heads or retaining those already in place.

Wood said Monday that he has had no conversations with the gubernatorial candidates and he did not know what his interest would be in continuing to serve as commissioner after Beebe leaves office.

“Five or six months into the job, I would have a better understanding of even having or not having an interest,” Wood said about 2015 and beyond. “My commitment right now clearly is with the current governor.”

Kimbrell, 52, who earns a salary of $228,887 is expected to remain at the agency through June 30.

“Tom is still taking care of things,” Wood said. “And I’ll continue to try to help him.”

Wood, who currently earns an annual salary of $151,944, said he would like the transition to be uneventful.

He called Kimbrell “extraordinary” and an “acedemic all-American” who is never motivated in his work by anything other than what is best for students.

Wood is taking the top job at a time when the state is making a transition to a new online student testing system. Those tests - which go into use next spring - are based on a nationally common set of math and literacy standards and will replace the long-standing state Benchmark and End-of-Course exams. The state is also phasing in a new teacher-evaluation system.

As commissioner, Wood will become the de facto school board for school districts taken over by the state as the result of fiscal and academic distress or failure to meet accreditation standards. Five districts are currently in that position: Pulaski County Special, Helena-West Helena, Lee County, Dollarway and Mineral Springs.

Wood is a native of Mississippi but attended college at Harding University in Searcy and never left, he said. Before his 18 years as the Searcy superintendent, he worked one year as deputy superintendent in the Little Rock School District in the Ruth Steele administration. He also was a principal for six years in the former Kensett school system.

He started his career as a teacher in Beedeville and then in Judsonia.

He has a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in education administration from Harding.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 05/06/2014