FAYETTEVILLE -- The Fayetteville School Board made plans to interview three candidates for superintendent before they submitted applications for the job.
Board President Tim Hudson, who is the primary contact for applicants, is not disclosing the names of candidates until after receiving their resumes, he said. The interview times and dates were scheduled through phone calls, but remained tentative until the candidates applied, he said.
"If they don't send me anything, then they are not an applicant," Hudson said. "We would cancel the interview."
Hudson said he was cautious about releasing names because the candidates were employed by other school boards.
"It's not trying to get around anything," Hudson said. "It's someone deciding, at the last moment that they can, to put themselves in what they feel is a vulnerable position, to publicly announce they are willing to leave the place where they are."
The board began a search for superintendent after the announcement Oct. 22 of Superintendent Paul Hewitt's plans to retire at the end of the school year. The board decided against hiring a search firm and instead decided to generate its own pool of candidates.
This is the board's third superintendent search since 2009.
This search yielded resumes from nearly 30 applicants, Hudson said. The board decided not to announce a list of top candidates to be interviewed but has set aside times within a three-week period for scheduling interviews.
"I am allowed to call people up," Hudson said. "They're allowed to call me and ask questions. People do suffer consequences simply by putting their name in the hat even if we choose not to interview them."
Candidates, especially those from out of state, often ask when they need to prepare for their names to be public record in the application process, Hudson said. Hudson tells them their names are public record as soon as they apply, he said. Some candidates are not willing to apply, knowing their applications are public record.
In other states, such as Maryland and Rhode Island, the search process can be confidential until the moment a school system releases the name of the person who is hired, Hudson said.
Arkansas' laws on open records tend to be stronger than the laws of other states in favoring transparency, said Tres Williams, spokesman for the Arkansas Press Association.
"The spirit of the law is to provide transparency in government and that citizens can be involved in their government," Williams said. "If you allow a government entity at any level to operate in secret, then you're shutting off all of the involvement of the people that pay for those institutions."
Transparency matters because the superintendent of a public school district is a taxpayer-funded position, he said.
"It's their employee," Williams said. "They need to be involved or at least advised of the search and the candidates. If someone doesn't want to participate in an open employment search, they should probably just work for a private company."
The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette submitted a request under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act for applications of the superintendent candidates. Hudson forwarded email messages with applications from 26 candidates on Friday and the applications of two more candidates on Sunday. He said he continues to search through his email and expected to forward more.
The board began face-to-face interviews last week, starting Wednesday with Kim Garrett, the district's associate superintendent of secondary education.
Hudson on Jan. 12 said the board planned to interview a candidate Thursday and had plans to interview a few more candidates this week, but did not identify three candidates who he said had not sent resumes.
Benton Superintendent Jeff Collum was interviewed Thursday.
Matt Wendt, a superintendent for the Community Unit School District 308 in Oswego, Ill., was interviewed Monday.
Hudson on Monday afternoon was awaiting a resume from a candidate he did not identify. The board has set time aside to interview the candidate at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
On Sunday, Hudson identified C.J. Huff, former superintendent of Joplin, Mo., Schools, as a candidate who would be interviewed at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. Huff submitted an application Dec. 10, according to an email Hudson forwarded Sunday in response to the request for applications.
All interviews are conducted in closed meetings at the Adams Leadership Center, 1000 W. Bulldog Blvd. in Fayetteville. Such executive sessions are allowed under the law.
Mike Mertens, assistant executive director for the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, said scheduling tentative interviews with candidates who had not applied isn't common, but he did not consider the approach to be unusual, he said.
"Larger school districts, they will seek out people and ask them to apply or would they be interested in coming for an interview," Mertens said.
Fayetteville School Board member Steve Percival, who has participated in past superintendent searches, said the current search has been productive. The search is a dynamic process with some late applicants, he said.
Some prospects worry about their relationship souring with their own school boards and don't want anything official, he said.
"It's a careful balance between respecting the superintendent's wishes where they are and transparency," Percival said. "We're more than happy to disclose anybody who's applied."
The board has not turned away any candidates, but has sought out candidates who were recommended, had great relationships with their school boards and who are serving their districts well, Hudson said.
"That's who we want," Hudson said. "That's the hardest applicant to get."
Board members are the community's elected representatives, with a primary responsibility for hiring a superintendent, Hudson said.
The board will conduct roughly a half dozen or more in-person interviews this month, Hudson said. The board will select one or more candidates to bring back to meet with employees of the district and with community members.
"There's plenty of opportunity for people to tell us what they think," Hudson said. "That's our job to hire that person. That's one big piece of the job the community elects the School Board to do."
Metro on 01/19/2016