By By BETTY MITCHELL GRAY
Staff Writer
John Conway, assistant superintendent of Beaufort County Schools, will briefly lead the school system following the resignation of interim Superintendent William Rivenbark.
Rivenbark resigned because of his wife’s health problems.
The Beaufort County Board of Education unanimously voted to appoint Conway “to fulfill the duties of the superintendent on an emergency basis, contingent on either obtaining approval from the superintendent of public instruction or on the receipt of a superintendent’s license.”
The vote came after board Chairman Robert Belcher announced at the start of the board’s meeting Monday night the receipt of Rivenbark’s resignation earlier that day.
“I regret that I must resign as Interim Superintendent effective November 30, 2009. this action is due to my wife’s recent brain injury. I must devote my time and energy toward her rehabilitation and complete recovery,” Rivenbark wrote in a letter sent by e-mail to the school board Nov. 23.
“Beaufort County Schools is a good school system and has the potential to be a great school system with the right leadership system in place and with a relationship with the county commissioners of mutual respect, trust and transparency. I hope that I have helped to plant the seeds for this potential to become a reality,” he wrote.
The change in leadership at the schools comes amid the school board’s search for a new superintendent to replace former Superintendent Jeff Moss, who accepted the superintendent’s post with the Sanford-Lee County Schools. The board has narrowed to four its choice for superintendent from an original pool of more than 20 applicants and, later, eight prospects brought in for interviews.
Board members are scheduled to meet with the finalists in closed-door sessions Nov. 30 and Dec. 2 and then begin contract discussions with their top pick for the post.
Belcher said the board hopes to have a new superintendent in place by Jan. 1, 2010. It is likely that Conway will fulfill the superintendent’s duties until the new superintendent is hired and begins work.
In other business, the board:
• Gave tentative approval to changes in the school drug-testing policy. The new policy would give flexibility in rules governing school suspensions for a student who has tampered with a urine specimen or substituted a urine specimen from another student for his or her own, according to Patrick Abele, executive director for learning services. It also adds alcohol to the list of substances to be tested for and reformats the Student Athletic Commitment Contract, among other changes;
• Gave tentative approval to changes in school policy prohibiting discrimination, harassment and bullying. The changes were made to comply with legislation approved earlier this year by the N.C. General Assembly that require every school system to adopt the policy by the end of 2009. Among other changes, the new policy allows complaints of harassment to be submitted anonymously and expands the definition of bullying;
• Gave tentative approval to changes in the school retention, career status and nonrenewal policy that gives new rights to teachers during their probationary periods, according to Conway. Under the change, if a teacher is eligible for “career status” and the superintendent recommends that career status not be given, the teacher has the right to a hearing before the school board unless the recommendation was made because of a decrease in the number of staff positions for a specified reasons. The board may grant a hearing for probationary teachers not in the final year before that teacher is eligible for career status, under the new policy. It also requires the superintendent to notify the probationary teacher no later than May 15 of the intent to recommend nonrenewal of the teacher’s contract.
• Reversed an earlier decision that would have required students to pay to take Advanced Placement exams but agreed to reconsider in December the current school policy that requires students in Advanced Placement tests to take the exam and reconsider in January the policy that stipulates the school system will pay for students to take those exams;
• Approved an audit report given by Adam Scepurek of school financial practices for the 2008-2009 fiscal year. The report found no deficiencies in internal controls of school finances and found financial practices to be in compliance with state and federal financial records requirements, Scepurek told the board;
• Approved changing the interest rate for all Grow Our Own Scholarship recipients in default to 3 percent;
• Approved a request for storage buildings for prekindergarten classrooms at Chocowinity Primary, Eastern Elementary and Northeast Elementary schools;
• Approved a request to install a ramp at the front entrance of the school system’s central services building;
• Approved the memorandum of understanding between Beaufort County Community College and the Beaufort County Early College High School. The new memorandum extends the contract between the two schools from one to three years to reflect the continued growth of the school, Principal Todd Blumenreich said in an interview before the meeting;
• Approved two field trip requests for Northside High School cheerleaders to participate in state and national cheerleading competitions in February and March;
• Set its next meeting for Dec. 14.
All board members attended the meeting.