CONTACT: JIM MORRIS |
Vol. 43, No. 10
February 25, 2009
Board Appoints Search Committee for Commissioner of Education
The State Board of Education has appointed a committee to lead its search for a new Commissioner of Education. The board approved the committee during its meeting last week (Feb. 20) in Jefferson City.
The board hopes to select a new Commissioner of Education by mid-summer to replace D. Kent King who died early in January. The Commissioner serves as director of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and as the state’s top official for public schools (pre-kindergarten-grade 12).
Last month, the Board appointed Thomas R. Davis, a Kansas City businessman and former member of the State Board of Education, to chair the search committee. Upon Davis’s recommendation, the Board appointed eight other members and two alternates to serve on the committee. They are:
Merrell Bennekin, Kansas City. Mr. Bennekin is deputy director of the Board of Police Commissioners’ Office of Community Complaints and a member of the Center School District Board of Education.
Pete Burns, Sikeston. Mr. Burns is an attorney and former member of the State Board of Education (1995-2001).
Billy Collier, Weldon Spring. Mrs. Collier recently retired as executive director of United Services of St. Charles County, a private organization that provides preschool services and advocacy for children with special needs and their families.
David Hornaday, St. Joseph. Mr. Hornaday is a senior vice president of WireCo World Group, a multi-national manufacturing company with headquarters in Kansas City.
John Moten, Jr., St. Louis. Mr. Moten is a former executive with Laclede Gas Company and currently a consultant to Emerson Electric Co.
Betty Preston Steele, Chillicothe. Mrs. Steele is a vice president of Citizens Bank and Trust Co., Chillicothe, and a former member (1994-2003) and president of the State Board of Education.
Kim Ratcliffe, Columbia. Dr. Ratcliffe is an associate executive director of the Missouri School Boards Association.
Susan Taber, Walnut Grove. Mrs. Taber is a veteran public school educator who recently retired as assistant superintendent of the Carthage School District.
Alternates
John Martin, Kansas City. Dr. Martin is former superintendent of the Grandview C-4 School District and former interim superintendent of the Kansas City School District.
W. Dudley McCarter, Creve Coeur. Mr. McCarter is an attorney with a Clayton law firm and a member of the board of education of the Parkway School District.
The committee is planning to meet for the first time early in March. The committee will solicit, collect and review applications and give the State Board of Education a list of finalists for further consideration, Davis said.
The deadline for applications is April 15. The complete application packet is now available on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Web site.