Williams named schools chief in EC-Pasquotank

Luton, Foreman vote against decision

By Reggie Ponder
Staff Writer

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Rebuffing two members’ call for a wider and more public search, the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Board of Education voted 5-2 Wednesday to name Linwood Williams the school district’s new superintendent.

Williams, who has been serving as interim superintendent since January, replaces the late Tony Stewart, who died last month from complications of pneumonia.

“I think we’ve got a top person here at this historic time in Pasquotank County,” board member William Sterritt said after the vote.

Sterritt’s motion to award Williams a four-year contract passed with members Bill Luton and Randy Foreman voting against it.

Both Foreman and Luton said their opposition wasn’t to Williams but to what they described as the school board’s hasty process to replace Stewart.

Indeed, Foreman told Williams publicly after the vote “I feel very at ease with you now as superintendent.”

And Luton said he already had explained to Williams why he would be voting against a motion to appoint him, calling his vote “the hardest 'no’ vote I have ever cast.”

Prior to the vote to name Williams superintendent, Foreman made a motion to begin an extensive search process for a superintendent. The motion failed, with only Foreman and Luton supporting it.

Sterritt said the support of the large crowd at Wednesday’s meeting was evidence of community support for Williams.

The crowd was estimated at more than 100. School officials reported 64 people squeezed into the boardroom at the school system’s central office. Forty or more waited in the hallways outside the boardroom.

The crowd staunchly supported the decision to appoint Williams, responding with hearty applause when Chairman Mark Small told Williams following the board’s vote: “We have a vacant seat up here for you.”

Board Vice-chairwoman Janice Boyce praised Williams as “a Christian man” and noted “much prayer has gone into this decision.”

Both Luton and Foreman argued the board should have carried out a full search rather than simply naming Williams — who had served since January as acting superintendent in Stewart’s absence. Stewart was diagnosed with double pneumonia in December.

Luton called Williams “highly capable” and “a man of integrity.” But he said the board needed to heed the community’s call for “a full and complete search.”

The decision to name Williams superintendent was made with “virtually no deliberation” and without input from the community, Luton said.

Sterritt disputed Luton’s assessment, insisting “we have been deliberating on this issue for months.”

Board member Glenda Griffin said the board is very familiar with Williams and his abilities.

“We know him,” Griffin said. “We really know him.”

Williams has served the community and school system “in a way that we all can appreciate” and he “can very well do the job,” Griffin said.

After the vote, Griffin admonished Williams to read the first chapter of Joshua from the Bible “and always have God on your right hand.”

Williams thanked the board for the “vote of confidence.” He also thanked teachers and staff, his family, and the community.

“I don’t plan to let you down,” Williams said.

Small said he was impressed by the “leadership qualities” Williams had demonstrated as acting superintendent.

After the meeting, Small defended the board’s process for naming a new superintendent, saying board members had received a great deal of public input, especially following an article in The Daily Advance last week that reported the board was considering naming Williams to the post.

“The community had about a week to let us know what they thought, and we heard them,” Small said. “We heard an array of ideas and suggestions.”

Boyce said after the meeting that a search process has drawbacks, including bringing in candidates who aren’t familiar with the school system and the community.

“If you do a search you bring someone in cold,” Boyce said.

In contrast, the board had in Williams someone “already familiar with everything.”

She said she and other board members had received a lot of phone calls and that community sentiment was “overwhelmingly” in favor of making Williams superintendent.

Small said the board plans to vote on Williams’ contract, including his salary, at its regular meeting in July. Williams and the school board’s attorney are still working out details of the contract but it could be completed as early as next week, Small said.

“It’s not done yet,” he said.