Mississippi Association of Educators President Erica Jones issues the following statement on the Superintendent of Education search, the process of which is scheduled to begin July 1:

“As a prominent stakeholder group in the public education system of Mississippi, we intend to be following and actively participating in the search of our state’s next Superintendent of Education.

“Today, we attended the State Board of Education meeting and were pleased to note that the outline of the Superintendent selection process was presented clearly and concisely. While the process will likely take over six months from start to finish, we believe that something as important and impactful as this hire is worthy of a slow, methodical, and focused procedure.

“We were also encouraged to hear that stakeholder groups such as ours will be included in the discussions determining the qualities Mississippi expects in this important leadership post. To that end, we have developed a survey requesting input from educators and the public as to what qualities they believe the successful candidate should possess.

“We firmly believe that if any organization is to succeed, especially one that represents the state’s entire public school population, the place to start looking for ideas and information is from the boots-on-the-ground. That would be in service educators.

“Further, we congratulate Dr. Kim Benton on her appointment as interim Superintendent of Education. We look forward to working with her.”

Here is a link to the MAE Superintendent of Education survey: Finding the right state superintendent | Mississippi Association of Educators (maetoday.org)