By Jean Cole
jean@athensnews-courier.com
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Limestone County school board members will try to decide which of the five superintendent candidates they like best and which ones they plan to interview during a work session Thursday.
The public meeting starts at 6 p.m. at the Courthouse Annex on Clinton Street in Athens.
“We are getting together to discuss the candidates as to how many we are going to interview — whether all five or not,” Board President Darin Russell said Wednesday. “We will discuss who likes who and see where we get.”
The board is seeking a replacement for former Superintendent Dr. Barry Carroll, who retired last Dec. 1 after serving 10 years as head of the county school system.
The board must hire a new superintendent by June.
The salary for the position ranges from $113,000 to $130,000 a year.
Earlier this month, the board received a list of the five finalists. The five were chosen from among 23 applicants — one from as far away as Hawaii — by a consultant the board hired for $15,000 last year to do a nationwide search. Kendy Behrends, the consultant with the Alabama Association of School Boards, announced the following five finalists during a work session. The top 5, in alphabetical order, are:
• Zebbra Green — Interim superintendent of Limestone County Schools since 2011.
Also director of elementary curriculum for Limestone Schools from 2001 to present.
• Dwight John Pullen — Assistant professor and partnership coordinator at Central Michigan University from 2011 to present.
• Thomas Michael Sisk — Human resources supervisor for Baldwin County Schools from 2003 to present.
• Joe David Walters — Superintendent for Tuscumbia County Schools from 2007 to present.
• Leonard Westbrook — Assistant superintendent for Independence School District in Missouri from 2005 to present. Also a consultant for Keystone Information Systems in New Jersey from 2005 to present.
