MADISON, Ala. (AP) - The Madison City Schools board of education has hired an interim superintendent to lead one of the state’s most high-achieving school systems.
Al.com (https://bit.ly/2fDBkyu ) reports Dr. Ed Nichols, who retired this year as superintendent of Decatur City Schools, will serve first as a consultant until Superintendent Dr. Dee Fowler leaves Nov. 30, before taking on the interim superintendent position.
Fowler resigned after 10 years at the helm of Madison City Schools to accept a position as chief of staff for Alabama’s newly hired state superintendent, Michael Sentence.
Madison is one of the state’s largest school systems and boasts a graduation rate of 97 percent, with 92 percent going on to post-secondary schools.
“It’s very hard for me to leave,” Fowler told school board members and a small audience at Friday’s board meeting. “I told Ed it’s like allowing someone to dance with your daughter.”
But, he said, he’s excited to have Nichols on board. “Dr. Nichols has a sterling reputation in education.”
Nichols started his career as a band director at Austin High School in the late 1980s, later becoming Austin High principal, then assistant Superintendent at Decatur City Schools. He served as Decatur City’s superintendent from 2012-2016.
“I was happy in retirement, having my morning coffee on the back porch,” Nichols joked at the board meeting after the board approved his hire. “But you feel like sometimes God opens those doors for you to help and to serve.”
As interim superintendent, Nichols will not be eligible to apply for the permanent position, school board President Dr. Terri Johnson said.
Nichols will be paid $1,000 for the month of November while he serves as a consultant, learning the ropes from Fowler before Fowler leaves for Montgomery. Nichols will be paid $4,000 in December, then $10,000 a month in January and February.
Although state law gives the board 180 days to install a new superintendent, Johnson said the board would like to operate on an “accelerated timeline.”
“We’d like to get a superintendent in place in February, just because we have so many issues going on in the district with rezoning and tax renewals and just the growth that we’re experiencing,” she said.
The board has decided against hiring a search firm to find Fowler’s permanent replacement. Instead, it hired its longtime attorney, Woody Sanderson, to serve as consultant on the search process.
Applications will go to him, and he will be the one to use the board’s criteria to winnow the applicants down to a few names.
“We have a lot of trust in him in helping narrow down the candidate process,” said Johnson. “It’s in-house, but still preserves the anonymity of the applicants.”
Johnson expects to present a list of superintendent qualifications at its next board meeting on Nov. 17 and hopes to post the job soon after.
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