The Brewton City School board Monday officially hired principals for T.R. Miller and Brewton Middle schools.
Mary Bell, who has served as TRM principal since August 2010, was given a three-year contract to serve as the school’s administrator, while Madelyn Cave was hired as the new BMS principal.
Current BMS principal Karen Brown will retire June 30. Cave will assume the role July 1. Cave has worked for the last decade with the city school system and has served as a literacy coach and assistant BMS principal for the last two years.
Cave’s probationary contract will last for two years.
“We received a number of contracts, but felt like (Cave) had the experience we were looking for,” Superintendent Lynn Smith told the board Monday.
The board will now advertise for the assistant principal vacancy at BMS, Smith said.
“There are not a lot of certified school administrators, but I do feel we have some people who may express an interest in the job,” he said. “We will advertise the position next week and have it up on our website maybe by Friday.”
The two changes were not the only of the kind discussed at the meeting as the board is in the process of hiring a new system superintendent.
A week ago the board hired the Alabama Association of School Boards (AASB) to coordinate the regional search. Currently, an anonymous online survey is ongoing at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BrewtonSearch to help identify the qualities needed in a new superintendent.
Chairwoman Stephanie Walker reminded residents that a Thurs., Feb. 19, community input meeting will be held at the central office.
The day’s one-hour block schedule is:
• 10:45 a.m.: parents and community;
• 1:15 p.m.: public officials
• 2:30 p.m.: system and building administrators;
• 3:45 p.m.: certified staff;
• 5 p.m.: support staff; and,
• 6;30 p.m.: parents and community.
The survey results will be made available to the board on Feb. 24, Walker said.
An application deadline will be held at the beginning of March. All candidates will undergo a background and credit check. Five finalists will be selected by mid-April, and interviews will be held daily on May 4,5,7, 11 and 12.
In other business, the board:
• adopted the 2015-2016 school calendar. The only significant change is that students and staff will be given a whole week for Thanksgiving break, Smith said;
• approved a change order for the precast concrete work at TRM stadium; and,
• approved the resignations of TRM math teacher Shellie Johnson and BMS fifth grade teacher Cheryl Bagwell. Both are effective June 1.