Sohn: Superintendent search is at 14 months and counting

Staff photo by Doug Strickland / Interim superintendent Dr. Kirk Kelly, left, and board member Dr. Steve Highlander speak during a Hamilton County Board of Education special session on Thursday, April 27, 2017, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The board approved a balanced budget to be sent to the county commission, and they approved a charter request for Chattanooga Preparatory School. Staff photo by Doug Strickland / Interim superintendent Dr. Kirk Kelly, left, and board member Dr. Steve Highlander speak during a Hamilton County Board of Education special session on Thursday, April 27, 2017, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The board approved a balanced budget to be sent to the county commission, and they approved a charter request for Chattanooga Preparatory School.

By Pam Sohn May 27, 2017 4 min read

Staff Photo by Angela Lewis Foster School board members listen as superintendent candidate Stuart Greenberg speaks Monday, May 8, 2017 in the superintendent’s conference room.

WATCH THE INTERVIEWS

You can watch the skype interviews of Stuart Greenberg at https://tinyurl.com/ybrjknm5.You can watch the skype interviews of Wayne Johnson and Bryan Johnson at https://tinyurl.com/y6wlyxr8.You can watch the skype interviews of Kirk Kelly and Timothy Gadson at https://tinyurl.com/yclslbv3.

Hamilton County inched toward getting a new schools superintendent Thursday when the board pared down its candidate list from eight to five.

Or maybe – now at 14 months and counting – we inched toward making Interim Superintendent Kirk Kelly the “new” permanent superintendent.

Although Kelly tied at five votes with another candidate, Jack Elsey, and then won a “runoff” vote round with five votes again, that didn’t mean that Kelly came in as the fifth and last pick on the pared list.

The school board has nine members, and in both rounds of voting, Kelly got five votes.