At the special MCSD (Mineral County School District) meeting held on Wednesday, October 5, its board of trustees discussed the next steps for replacing its current superintendent Andre Ponder. Ponder gave his letter of resignation at the end of September and now the district is scrambling to find his successor while in the heart of the school year.
At the start of the meeting, the school district’s attorney made a motion to table Items 2-6 related to the hiring of a new superintendent saying that the district did not have a budget ready therefore it could not prepare the direction of the recruiting process for the next superintendent.
Board President Keith Neville expressed that he did not want to accept Mr. Andre’ Ponder’s resignation although he wanted to continue with the recruitment process for the next one, while board member Kathryn Castagnola wanted to accept his resignation because she was concerned about the legality surrounding the issue. Its attorney said that whether the board accepts Ponder’s resignation or not, it doesn’t affect Ponder’s departure.
“At what point does his salary and benefits, authority and his position cease?” a member of the audience asserted. Through the end of October, the board replied, and the board’s attorney would not disclose the reasoning or difference between accepting his resignation or not.
“It’s not a contract. When he submitted his resignation it’s done, he doesn’t get to withdraw it. If he wanted to withdraw it, he would have to apply for the interim superintendent position just like anybody else,” the attorney said.
“What we need to do is set a timeline as quickly as possible, but I’d like to talk to the candidates, I’d like to ask questions to everybody,” Neville added.
A few people are concerned about Ponder being in the superintendent position through the end of the month and keeping decision and spending powers. A member of the public was also worried about the current employee shortage and putting more work onto an already stressed staff.
“We’re short para pros and teachers. There are bullying issues, there are fighting issues, there are social emotional learning issues, and this may be enhancing them by pulling current staff to fill those roles,” she said. “My fear of removing a person is the stress trickling down to the students.”
Another resident who spoke in the last meeting recommended the board to appoint an interim superintendent as soon as possible and then take the time to formulate the job description, recruitment, and salary for the permanent position.
During the public comment period, a high school teacher stood up and said she had been with the district for 10 years, working for seven principals and four superintendents. She spoke highly of Principal Jeff Wales, saying that if it wasn’t for him, she wouldn’t have been able to do her job. She asked the board to hire a person who displays strong leadership, is calm, sturdy, dependable, “knows the NRS” (State of Nevada law statutes), and “keeps us teachers steady when there’s a storm all around.”
Then the board discussed next steps and decided to accept letters of intent from qualified internal candidates through October 11 and then interview them in a public forum on October 12 at 5:30 p.m. Two internal candidates had already applied.
