School board to consider interim superintendent at July 8 meeting
The Breckenridge Independent School District Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting next week to interview and consider hiring an interim superintendent, following current superintendent Tim Seymore’s announcement last month that he will be retiring at the end of August.
On Monday, July 8, in an executive session, the school board will interview Earl Jarrett, who retired from the Brazos Independent School District in Wallis, west of Houston, in 2017. According to the agenda for the meeting, immediately following the executive session, the board will consider hiring Jarrett as the interim superintendent.
Jarrett was suggested by Seymore, according to Breckenridge ISD Board of Trustees President Graham Reaugh. “They have never worked together, but they have been colleagues. They worked in close districts, and whenever Mr. Seymore had a question, he would refer to him first,” Reaugh said. “They respect each other and have pretty much the same philosophy. We don’t need a big game-changer; we just kind of need to keep the ship going like it is right now.”
Before he was the Brazos ISD superintendent, Jarrett was the superintendent in the Spur ISD, east of Lubbock, according to the “Texas Government Insider.” In a 2013 article, the newsletter reported that, “Jarrett also was a teacher and coach at Temple ISD and at school districts in Itasca, Dublin and Tom Bean. He also was a principal for Llano ISD and Pilot Point ISD.”
Graham Reaugh, president of the Breckenridge school board, says they will interview Earl Jarrett for the interim superintendent position on July 8. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/ Breckenridge Texan)
Reaugh said the board plans to begin a search for a permanent superintendent this fall and have someone hired on or before June 1, 2020. “First things first, we are getting an interim, and then we will decide which search firm to help us; that will be the first step,” he said.
For those members who have been on the a while, Seymore’s resignation wasn’t a surprise, Reaugh said. “When he was hired, he had said this would be his last superintendent job and he figured it would be about five years,” he said.
Seymore has been here about four and a half years, and the timing of his retirement coincides with the end of the district’s fiscal year and budget. “The timeline is optimal for finding a superintendent,” Reaugh said. “Trying to find one in the middle of the school year would be somewhat difficult.”
Although Reaugh said that he can’t speak for the rest of the board, he said that he will be looking for “someone who is fiscally conservative and who can navigate through all the ins and outs of the state requirements and the state financial situation as it affects the school board.”
Monday’s meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. at the BISD administration office, 212 N. Miller St.
Story by Tony Pilkington and Carla McKeown/Breckenridge Texan
Cutline, top photo: Earl Jarrett, pictured at a Brazos ISD graduation ceremony several years ago, is being considered for the job of interim superintendent of Breckenridge ISD. (Photo courtesy of the Wallis News-Review)
