After a heated Omaha Public Schools board meeting Monday night, the school board is actively trying to get a new interim superintendent and get the entire school board involved again.
Parents, community members and board members all shared their frustration over the board’s handling of the superintendent search at Monday’s board meeting, mainly targeted at the board’s accountability subcommittee, which was responsible in leading the superintendent search.
As of last week, Board President Lacey Merica said the board could not agree on either of the two final applicants for the job, Dr. Paul Gausman from Sioux City Community Schools and D. Khalid Mumin from Pennsylvania.
Merica contacted the search firm and told them the board’s stance. The firm then contacted the candidates, which led to Gausman and Mumin sending a joint letter stating their withdrawal from the candidacy.
At Monday’s meeting, many of the board members felt frustrated the subcommittee contacted the firm without the entire board’s approval.
"To me, my personal opinion is that the decision should have been brought to the entire board here before a decision was made,” said Shavonna Holman, an OPS board member.
"We agreed unanimously to just take a step back and evaluate where we were in the search, but for some reason that had to take place by a committee,” express Ben Perlman, another OPS board member.
The subcommittee, which consists of Lacey Merica, Marque Snow, Matt Scanlan, and Vinny Palermo met privately at the TAC building Tuesday afternoon to discuss what the process will look like moving forward with the search of an interim superintendent.
"We have made no determinations. Any decisions that are going to be made are going to be made by the full board,” said Merica.
Merica said the board is working to schedule a special board meeting, ideally next week to discuss possible options moving forward. She says all decisions regarding the superintendent search will include the entire board.
"Every decision that we make is going to be a full board decision and making sure that everyone in the board feels that they are included and knows exactly what's going on and had all the information of them,” said Merica.
If the board cannot schedule a meeting next week, the board will meet at their scheduled OPS board meeting on April 3rd.
