Liberty County board debates GSBA draft superintendent announcement after members find errors
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Summary
Board members questioned why a draft superintendent announcement appeared on the GSBA website before full-board review, identified incorrect student and budget figures, and set a Thursday deadline for revisions; GSBA said postings are preliminary and can be taken down on request.
The Liberty County Board of Education on Tuesday pressed the Georgia School Boards Association (GSBA) over a superintendent-search announcement that board members said appeared on the GSBA website before the full board had reviewed and approved the text.
Dr. Sam King, GSBA’s point of contact for the district’s superintendent search, told the board the draft on GSBA’s site was a preliminary posting and not yet active for accepting applications. “I’m not going to authorize GSBA to do anything until we receive edits back from you,” King said, adding he could request that the posting be removed the next morning if the board preferred.
Board members said the draft contained incorrect district data and design elements they had not approved. Dr. Martin asked, “Why was this announcement posted on the GSBA website without full board review and approval?” Several members pointed to mismatched student counts and budget figures on the draft: one speaker said the document lists about 10,990 students in one place while internal staff provided an approximate 10,000 figure, and another said the posting showed a $170,000,000 budget while the district’s correct figure is $150,000,000.
The board and GSBA discussed how the announcement was prepared. King said required and preferred candidate attributes on the draft are driven by the survey GSBA administered to board members; he said the communications department’s edits were limited to names, photos and layout, not to those core attributes. “None of those numbers were created from GSBA,” King said. “That information…came from the communications department via the contact.”
Board members said they had not received a consolidated survey summary to review and asked that the survey results and the draft be circulated to the full board. Chair Jones said the board would collect corrections and return them to GSBA. The board agreed on a deadline for suggested edits and changes: end of day Thursday, after which GSBA would incorporate revisions and send a revised draft back to the chair for final approval before any application portal went live.
Board members asked GSBA to pull the current posting from public view until the board’s revisions are completed. King said he could have the posting removed the following morning if that was the board’s direction.
The board also discussed which district staff served as GSBA’s information contact; Dr. Perry confirmed he had provided a district contact to GSBA. Several members said communication about photos and other design elements had come from that contact and the GSBA communications team. The board instructed members to submit marked edits (track changes or annotated text) to their chair so GSBA could forward them to its communications department and update the announcement.
The discussion ended with scheduling and process directions: board members will compile edits and return them by the Thursday deadline; GSBA will update the announcement, return a revised draft to the chair, and not activate the application portal until the board gives its final approval.