Published: June 10, 2009 11:25 pm      

Osborne still does not have contract

Vacant board seat leaves vote split equally

SUMMIT — Time is running out for the Boyd County Board of Education to decide whether it wants to keep Superintendent Howard K. Osborne.

His four-year contract expires at the end of June and the board has not offered him a new contract.

Two board members, Randall Stapleton and chairman Bob Green, say they want Osborne to stay. Stapleton said the two other members, Theresa Jackson and Teresa Cornette, do not want to renew the contract.

“Everybody seems to think he’s great except Theresa Jackson and Teresa Cornette,” he said. “I don’t know what the problem is.”

Cornette declined to tell a reporter whether she favors rehiring Osborne or not.

Jackson said she had not made up her mind and would wait to do so until there is a full board.

“Some things could happen to change our minds,” she said.

Jackson said she did not have any other potential candidates in mind.

The board is split because its fifth member, Phillip Pruitt, resigned in April. Pruitt was legally unable to serve on the board because he works for the county.

The effect of the two-two split on a vote is unclear. Generally, a tie vote would simply nullify the motion, meaning it would neither be passed nor defeated, said Lisa Gross, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Education.

“It would be as if it had never happened,” she said.

Gross wasn’t sure if the general rule applies to school boards, however.

The commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Education is to appoint a member to the vacant seat from among applications sent to the department. The board members don’t have any say in the choice and neither does anyone in the district.

Green said he wants to wait until the new member is chosen to schedule the vote on Osborne’s contract.

The board’s next regular meeting is scheduled for June 22.

If there is no fifth member by then the board might have a special meeting later or might go ahead and vote, Green said.

Osborne declined to discuss the matter but said he wants to stay on as superintendent.

“I fully intend to return to Boyd County schools,” he said.

Some faculty members are dismayed the popular superintendent hasn’t been rehired yet and fear losing him to another school district.

“It would be a crying shame if we allowed his contract to expire,” said Shawn Thornbury, a social studies and history teacher at Boyd County High School. “I’ve worked here 10 years and I can’t remember a time when we had a superintendent this visible.”

Osborne’s constant presence in the schools establishes his leadership role and assures teachers he values the work they do in the classroom, Thornbury said.

“We’re afraid he may be forced to go elsewhere,” said Bryan Scott, who teaches social studies at the high school.

“I feel he supports Boyd County. He supports the kids ... They see him in the schools. He doesn’t just show up for testing,” said Anita Smith, a seventh-grade teacher at Boyd County Middle School.

It would be a mistake to let Osborne slip away, said middle school Assistant Principal Debbie Diamond.

“I’m very confused about the whole thing. He’s done a wonderful job,” she said. “It makes no sense to me. Somebody must have a personal agenda.

“He’s the first superintendent in 25 years that the kids know him by name.”

Thornbury, Scott, Smith and Diamond were among the 17 faculty members who signed a letter to The Independent calling for Osborne to be rehired.

The department of education received three applications for the vacant seat but has not scheduled interviews yet, Gross said. When it does the interviews will be conducted by a committee with no ties to the district, she said.

Osborne came to the district four years ago and since then the district has seen its test scores rise sharply. Also Boyd County is well on the way to breaking ground on a new high school, and many on the faculty say Osborne gets much of the credit for that.

MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2652.