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Info on the finalists:Natasha Baker: State school reform officer for the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget. Previously, Baker was the deputy superintendent and state school reform officer in the division of education services for the Michigan Department of Education.Clifford Davis Jr.: Chief of staff for Knox County Schools. Davis has been in Knox County Schools since 2005, previously working as the executive director of secondary education.Jack Elsey Jr.: Chief schools officer for the Education Achievement Authority of Michigan. Before that, Elsey was the chief officer of innovation and incubation for Chicago Public Schools. From 2005-2011 he was the managing director of public affairs and school relations for Teach for America, New York.Timothy Gadson III: Superintendent designee and executive director of curriculum and schools for Robbinsdale Area Schools in Minnesota. From 2014 to 2016, Gadson worked as the associate superintendent for Atlanta Public Schools.Stuart Greenberg: Chief academic officer for Leon County Public Schools in Florida. Before that, Greenberg was the executive director for reading and early learning for the Florida Department of Education. Greenberg was one of the six finalists in Knox County’s recent superintendent search.Arthur Wayne Johnson: Founder and chairman of First Performance Corp. and former CEO of Reunion Financial Services Corp. and a managing partner at Global Education Partners. He lives in Georgia.Bryan Johnson: Chief academic officer for Clarksville-Montgomery County School System in Tennessee. Before being named to that position, he served as the director of high schools for the district.Kirk Kelly: Interim superintendent of Hamilton County Schools. Kelly has been an educator in Chattanooga and Hamilton County schools for 35 years, starting as a math teacher and moving up to assistant superintendent for accountability and testing, before being selected to serve as interim superintendent.Source: Information about each candidate is taken from their résumés.
After several major distractions and delays, Hamilton County Board of Education members are hoping they've reached the final stretch in the search for a permanent superintendent.
It's been 14 months since the district's previous superintendent stepped down, and on Monday night the board will finish interviewing the eight candidates by videoconference. The board plans to trim the list to five finalists during a public meeting on Thursday, and have those candidates each visit on a different day between June 5 and June 9 for in-person interviews.
And on June 15, the board hopes to select Hamilton County's next school superintendent.
Board member Tiffanie Robinson presented the plan to the board during its meeting Thursday night, and the members unanimously agreed.
During Thursday's meeting, each board member will list their top five candidates in alphabetical order, and each candidate will receive one point. The candidates with the most points will be selected for interviews.
"If there is a tie for the fifth position, a ballot will be taken with just the two final candidates," Robinson explained Thursday.
Before the in-person interviews, Robinson said, each board member can choose to hold a meeting in their district to hear from constituents about what they want to see in the district's next leader.
"The logistics of those meetings is up to the individual board member," Robinson said. "So this is optional."
During each candidate's in-person visit, they will have another interview with the full board and get the opportunity to talk one-on-one with board members.
School board member Karitsa Mosley Jones said the board should ask each candidate the same questions during the interviews, arguing that would make the evaluation of candidates fair and transparent.
"I think no matter what type of candidate you are, whether you're a business candidate or a current superintendent or work in education, you can take the question and tweak it to whatever your experience is," she said.
But school board Chairman Steve Highlander disagreed, and said asking each candidate the same questions could give some an advantage.
"I think there is too much chance that if one has seen what a prior person has seen they can get too much coaching," he said.
And if Hamilton County Schools Interim Superintendent Kirk Kelly is selected as a finalist, Highlander said, he may want to ask him different questions than the external candidates.
The board also decided that during the in-person visits, each finalist will visit two schools and meet with principals, teachers, parents, students and central office staff. The finalists also will spend time with elected officials and advocacy groups.
Board members plan to meet in the coming days to nail down details about those visits.
The firm helping with the search, Coleman Lew and Associates, provided the board a list of 14 candidates to consider for the post on April 21. By email, each board member sent Highlander a list of the 10 candidates they wanted to interview. And then on May 2, Highlander, the board secretary and a representative from the search firm tabulated the results in private and days later announced the nine candidates the board would interview. One of those candidates dropped out before the interviews.
State law says the board must deliberate in public and members may not cast secret votes or use emails as a way to avoid open meetings laws.
Contact staff writer Kendi A. Rainwater at krainwater@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6592. Follow her on Twitter @kendi_and.