After the year ends in December one thing will most likely stay the same: the Marion County School District superintendent.
School Board President Keith Stuckey said this week the board is working on a contract to keep Wendy Bracey as the state law shifts from elected to appointed superintendents. He said he is hoping to have a contract presented next month.
“Yes, that is the plan. I’m looking forward to it,” Bracey, who was elected to a four-year term in 2015, said.
Up until now the Marion County schools superintendent has always been elected (Columbia’s has always been appointed). However, the legislature changed the law in 2016 to make all superintendents in the state appointed after the current four-year term ends in January 2020.
At the time the law was changed, 55 out of the 144 Mississippi school districts had elected superintendents, making it one of just three states that continued to elect school superintendents. Most districts throughout the country have shifted to a model that involves an elected school board that hires the superintendent.
