The Newton County Board of Education is expected to choose a new superintendent next week and will also vote on a new director of research, testing and evaluation.

Newton County School System Superintendent Gary Mathews said Wednesday that BOE Chair Abigail Coggin requested the board vote on a new superintendent at its next scheduled meeting, May 14 at 7 p.m.

The BOE named its top three finalists for the system’s superintendent position in April. Finalists included Samantha Fuhrey, the deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction for NCSS; Samuel Light, the superintendent of the Illini Bluffs Community Unit School District #327 in Glasford, Ill.; and Noris Price, the deputy superintendent for the Clarke County School District in Athens.

The three choices are vying to be the next superintendent of the Newton County School System, replacing Mathews, who will retire June 30 after three years of holding the position.

“This is one of the most important decisions I have made in my life. It is more difficult for me because this decision will not only affect my children, but that of 19,000 more children in our community,” Coggin previously said. “We only have one chance to give our children a basic education. 

“The superintendent has a large amount of influence over how we educate these students.”

In addition to possibly naming the next NCSS superintendent, Mathews said a new director of Research, Testing and Evaluation will be up for a vote from the board during the meeting.

Carl Skinner, the current director, announced his resignation in March and will soon move to Kansas City, Mo.
There he will serve as the deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction.

Skinner resigned after accepting a position as deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction in the Hickman Mills C-1 School District in Kansas City.

He is following Dennis Carpenter, the district’s former deputy superintendent of operations, who is taking over as superintendent at Hickman Mills.

Mathews also said that NCSS officials are working to fill the principal position at Alcovy High School.

He said applicants will be screened for the position this Friday (May 10), and interviews will be conducted within the coming weeks.

The principal position for AHS was reposted in April, as the screening committee was not pleased with the overall quality of the 13 AHS principal applicants.

The open position closed May 8.