During its inaugural public meeting Tuesday night, the Newberry Community School Board (NCSB) acted on several agenda items, including a staff agreement with the city of Newberry, a contract with School Financial Services (SFS) and a timeline for hiring a principal.
Lacy Roberts, who was hired to serve as the consultant for NCS in August, gave a presentation on the staff agreement with the city, which she said was provided to board members on Sept. 5.
“It outlines the services of the city that the city is able and willing to assist in providing NCS and the board,” Roberts said, adding that Newberry has agreed to support the efforts of the charter school as a service provider for human resources (HR) support.
The board unanimously approved a recommendation to authorize Chair Derek Danne to negotiate and execute the staffing agreement with the city.
Roberts then moved to the second agenda item, which was the contract with SFS.
“They are the financial management company and assisted you all with the [charter] application,” she said. “They have agreed to stay on and provide financial oversight for the board and NCS.”
In addition to completing a contract with SFS, Roberts told the board it would also need to authorize a PEX card to her as its consultant.
A PEX card is a corporate prepaid card service for managing employee spending.
“I’ve spoken with Derek, and all parties are agreeable to a $2,500 limit on the card for now, and this could be readdressed at a later date,” Roberts said.
In response to a question asked by Treasure Leslie Hayes-Morrison, Roberts described the PEX card as a prepaid card.
“You can spend up to $2,500, and it would have to be loaded again,” she said.
The board unanimously approved a recommendation to authorize Danne to execute the contract with SFS and allow him to approve the issuance of the PEX card to Roberts with a limit of $2,500.
When the time came for discussion on the timeline for hiring a principal, Roberts turned it over to board member Chuck Clemons, who had added the item to the agenda.
“I think that probably one of the most important decisions that we make is recruiting and hiring a leader for our new community school,” said Clemons, who attended the meeting via Zoom.
Clemons proposed to the board an eight-step process for hiring a principal.
The first step, he said, would be posting a job opening that is agreeable to the attributes, skill sets and education the board would look for as a permanent principal by Oct. 1, with the application period closing on Oct. 15.
The second step, Clemons said, would be the application screening process.
“It could be conducted by a designated committee that you appoint, Mr. Chairman, or an individual that the board designates,” he said.
The third step in the process would be for the board to review the finalists, which Clemons said would take place on Oct. 20.
“A goal would be about five days after the screening process concludes,” he said. “The board would vote to approve the top three candidates for public interviews, and then step four would be the candidate interviews, somewhere between October 20 and maybe the 31st.”
Clemons said the fifth step would be the board’s vote to hire a candidate. He added that this would be close to Nov. 17, or on a date near that, which leads to the sixth step: the job offer and negotiation with the approved candidate.
“After that, extend the contract negotiations to begin and then finalize the contract draft, signed and executed, with a start date of maybe January the 5th [2026],” Clemons said. “So, that’s the eight steps I believe would be reasonable and prudent to go through…to get the best qualified candidate to not only hire our teachers, but to be the Goodwill Ambassador for several months in enrolling students by conducting classes or community meetings [and] and explaining the process of our school. This [person] will be the MVP of the success of the Newberry Community School.”
Danne clarified with Clemons about the motion being recommended to the board.
“I just would like the board to adopt this principal hiring timeline,” Clemons said.
After a motion and a second on the floor, there was some discussion among board members.
Hayes-Morrison said she liked the timeline of the hiring process, adding she thought it was fair. She asked where the board and staff were thinking of posting and advertising the position.
“There’s a statewide network for educational postings that would go out throughout the whole country, but it would basically be in Florida,” Clemons replied. “I really don’t think we would have a lot of candidates willing to move from out of state to Newberry, but maybe.”
Clemons said he feels the more places they post the job, “the better quality and field of candidates” they will receive.
“I will be supportive of posting it anywhere on the internet and other places that will be usual, reasonable and customary for educational principal postings,” he said.
After some further discussion, the board ultimately voted unanimously to adopt the principal hiring timeline.
State Board meeting approaching
The State Board of Education will hold its next meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 24, in Fort Walton Beach. At this meeting, which is slated for 9 a.m. at Northwest Florida State College (1170 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd., Bldg. 8), the board is expected to consider a recommendation by the Charter School Appeal Commission (CSAC) to approve the application for the conversion of Newberry Elementary School into NCS.
The CSAC denied the School Board of Alachua County’s (SBAC) appeal for the charter school conversion during a hearing on Aug. 25.
Nick Anschultz is a Report for America corps member and writes about education for Mainstreet Daily News. This position is supported by local donations through the Community Catalyst for Local Journalism Fund at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.