Lexington One Board names three finalists for superintendent
January 9, 2016
The Lexington County School District One Board of Trustees has chosen three finalists as it continues its search for a superintendent to replace retiring Superintendent Karen Woodward, Ed.D.
The three finalists are Gregory D. Little, Ed.D., Alonzo “Lonnie” Ray Luce, Ph.D. and Jeffrey S. Salters, MBA.
The board understands that the communities served by the district want someone to whom they can relate, who will maintain the caring culture, level of academic excellence and community partnerships for which the district is known. The board feels that these finalists not only have strong qualifications but also meet the expectations of those communities.
The 360 square miles that make up Lexington One stretch from the banks of Lake Murray to the county’s southern border with Aiken County, occupying 48 percent of the county’s 750 square miles. The district serves more than 25,000 students from Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 with more than 3,700 employees (not including substitutes) and 30 schools (17 elementary schools, seven middle schools, five high schools, one technology center). The district also has an alternative learning program called FOCUS.
The district will post the finalists’ résumés on the district’s website at www.lexington1.net. Here is a brief summary of the career experience of the three finalists:
Gregory D. Little, Ed.D., who currently serves as superintendent of Mount Airy City Schools in Mount Airy, North Carolina, has 18 years of educational experience with four of those spent serving as superintendent. His prior experience also includes five years as assistant superintendent of K–12 curriculum and instruction at Roanoke Rapids Graded School District. Little also served as senior administrator of middle school English/language arts for the Wake County Public School System in Raleigh, English/language arts instructor and coach in Durham Public Schools, freshman English instructor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, secondary English/language arts instructor in Durham Public Schools, and federal grant reviewer at Roanoke Rapids Graded School District.
Alonzo “Lonnie” Ray Luce, Ph.D., who currently serves as superintendent in St. James Parish Schools in Lutcher, Louisiana, has 29 years of educational experience with eight of those as superintendent. His prior experience also includes four years as deputy superintendent of schools and executive director of technology for Greenville County Schools in Greenville, South Carolina. Luce also served in Louisiana as chief information officer in New Orleans Public Schools, director of technology for Livingston Parish School Board, assistantdirector and technology coordinator at Louisiana State University, and assistant principal of instruction, technology magnet coordinator and teacher at Istrouma High School and Technology Magnet. He has 30 years of military experience.
Jeffrey S. Salters, MBA, currently serves as chief operations officer for Lexington County School District One. He has 20 years of educational experience with five years in his current position in Lexington District One. Salters has also served as chief information officer for technology, director of information/communication technologies and assistant coordinator of information technology for Lexington District One.
The candidates will spend some time next week in Lexington District One meeting the district’s principals and senior leadership team, and in further meetings with the board. As part of that process, individual board members will have numerous opportunities to meet formally and informally with the finalists. Although some of the planned activities could possibly result in a quorum of board members being present, board members will neither discuss nor act upon a matter over which the board has supervision, control, jurisdiction or advisory power.
To recap the process thus far: in June, the board contracted with Coleman Lew & Associates, Inc. to assist in a national search for a new superintendent.
Employees of Coleman Lew & Associates, Inc. conducted face-to-face meetings with board members, community leaders and businessmen/women, support staff, principals, student leaders, district administrators, teacher leaders, parent leaders from PTAs/PTOs, SICs, the Parent Ambassadors group, and others as they gathered and analyzed information from the various communities and began the formal search. At that point, they posted the final job description, advertised the opening, then proactively contacted individuals and solicited referrals for the position of Lexington District One superintendent.
Finally, over the last few months, the Board of Trustees talked about the superintendent search, narrowed the field and interviewed eight candidates chosen from a field of 50 inquiries from a number of states. The board is grateful that it had such experienced and talented candidates to choose from as it worked through the process of selecting finalists and hopes to make a decision within the next few weeks.
