Van Buren Begins Search For New Director

The Van Buren County School Board voted Wednesday night to begin the search immediately for a new director.

The board will advertise the position for three weeks. The board will then review applications for two weeks before conducting interviews. Board Member Barry Austin said he wants to hire a new director as soon as possible.

“Personally I don’t want to wait till the end of the year,” Austin said. “Only because I would like to have someone in place that can start training as soon as they can because the longer you are gone the less time you are gonna be around for a turnover or less time they will allow to come and do a turnover.”

A few board members had concerns about when a new director could start if they hired someone from a different school system. Austin said the school board could be flexible with whichever candidate the board chooses to hire.

“Hiring and the start date are two different things,” Austin said. “We can hire him and say we got this guy but we may not get him until whenever. He or she may not be able to come but in the meantime, we have an interim director.”

The school board also discussed the qualifications that are listed for the position. Austin said the requirement of three years of successful administration experience needed to be clarified.

“What is admin experience,” Austin said. “If we write that then we need to clarify what it means so we are not picking and choosing at that time what that means cause that leaves people out.”

Board Member Glenece Cole said a candidate would have to at least be a principal or assistant principal.

“They’ve had some experience with dealing with budgets and teachers and problems and new buildings and all that kind of stuff,” Cole said. “It needs to be somebody that’s got some kind of experience with that I would think.”

The board agreed that the ideal candidate would need some sort of budget and management experience.

In other business, Copeland said the project of replacing Spencer Elementary’s gym floor will begin soon.