David W. Smith

Staff Writer

Eight of the nine Metro Nashville School Board members, sitting at a round conference table during a special meeting on Thursday night, set a June deadline for finding a new superintendent to run the Nashville school system, and agreed on the search firm to do the job.

For the board and the Nashville school system, this moment marked the end of a long wait for results that had started when former director, Jesse Register, retired last June after almost seven years as Nashville’s top educator. After Register’s retirement and eventual acceptance of a teaching position at Belmont University, Chief Financial Officer Chris Henson was named interim director.

School board chairperson Sharon Dixon Gentry said board members found his calm, but direct personality, easy to work with; however, a year later, the position is still refered to as “temporary.” But school officials expect a new leader, soon.

Over the past two months, a 17-member search committee comprised of city leaders, including the Vice-Mayor and others, has been supporting the school board with the search after Mayor Megan Barry brought the group together.

During this time, the group, co-chaired by the Nashville Public Education Foundation (NPEF), has reviewed 5,000 pieces of feedback from a community survey that asked respondents about the attributes Nashville’s next superintendent should have.

The committee, like the school board, expressed their desire for the next public school’s leader to be a community builder who asks the right questions, ready to lean into the city’s problems, but they also knew about compensation packages that bring in candidates.

Something they presented to the school board last week. According to risk-management firm Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., the city should expect to offer the next superintendent a base pay between $225,000 to $375,000; the going rate in peer-city systems where directors negotiated contracts after 2014.

In addition to reaching an agreement on a summer deadline at last week’s special session, the school board agreed to hire Jim Huge and Associates to lead the search.

“When I met with Jim Huge, he asked all the right questions, and we knew we wanted to work with them,” said school board member Jill Speering.

The firm was one of two search firms presented to the board by NPEF, led by Shannon Hunt, the Nashville Public Education Foundation president and a co-chair of the board’s search committee task force. The board also agreed to allow the NPEF to pay for the search. “We are only supporting the school board with day to day coordination,” said Hunt. “At the end of the day the board will be selecting the next leader of the school system.”

Right now, Hunt is helping set up interviews between board members and the search firm. The board’s relationship with NPEF is part of the unfinished story of the school board’s attempted departure from inner politics that might cause the search for Register’s replacement to end without results.

“I don’t even want to think about that,” said Speering. Last fall, after Register retired, a search began with the interview of three candidates, who were then brought before community forums at several different area high schools.

Mike Looney, who is known in Williamson County as a stand-up leader, won the vote of the school board with only one board member, Tyese Hunter, asking for more attention to go to Angela Huff, the only female and African-American to reach the interview stage of the search.

But, Looney eventually turned down the position to remain in his home county. Chicago-based search firm Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, who led last year’s search, was chastised over their conduct in the director search, ranging from failing to check references and recommending a candidate who was unwilling to leave his current job.

The board agreed to pay the firm, then terminate the relationship. “For the next month or so everything is expected to quiet down,” said Gentry, adding that Jim Huge and Associates’ list of potential candidates will be presented to the board in April.

Ultimately, school officials confirm that hints, rumors, and whispering are obvious in the school and boardrooms, with everyone awaiting the answer to: “Who will be the person to lead Nashville’s growing school system?” There will be one answer.

State law prevents the hiring of a new superintendent within 45 days of school board elections and 30 days after. The election is in August. Therefore, a new superintendent is expected to start in mid-June, or in September, after the election.

Contact David at 615-298-1500 or [email protected]