Gulf Shores school board offers Huntsville superintendent Matt Akin a new job
The Gulf Shores school board extended an invitation to Huntsville school superintendent Matt Akin to become the first Gulf Shores City Schools superintendent. Gulf Shores city officials said the board of education voted unanimously on Monday to give legal counsel the go-ahead for negotiating a contract with Akin to lead their school system. The offer does not come as a surprise, Akin was the only person out of 27 candidates who was publicly interviewed for the job. Kevin Corcoran, President of the Gulf Shores board of education said they were so pleased with Akin’s interview that they were suspending their search to try and reach an agreement with Akin. “We like his passion. He has high achievement and he is highly approachable. That’s kind of a rare combination,” Corcoran told WHNT. According to WHNT Akin released a statement Monday night saying; “It is an honor to be selected and I look forward to reviewing the terms of the contract. It is an incredibly unique opportunity to be able to work with the board to develop a new school system from the ground up. Everyone I’ve spoken to has been very supportive.” “At the same time, I truly care about everyone in Huntsville, and I came to the district because I believe in the potential of the schools and the city. The foundation is in place to support greatness. With the help of the teachers, administrators and the community, I believe that Huntsville City Schools can be a model school system for the country. All of us on the Huntsville City Schools team have worked to develop strategies for personalized instruction, new resources to support literacy and math, and drafting our Indicators of Future Success.” The school split talks began in January but hit several snags including who the superintendent for the school would be. The school board is still negotiating an actual start date for the school; with city and board of education members hoping for a 2018-2019 date.
Baldwin County and Gulf Shores at odds over school split
In January, Baldwin County’s first-ever school split talks began. Gulf Shores is currently trying to split from the rest of the Baldwin County School System to form it’s own Gulf Shores city school system. During the first meetings in January, tension was high as the two groups discussed a new superintendent for the Gulf Shores school. According to a report by AL.com, Baldwin County school system Superintendent Eddie Tyler, said “There will be no negotiations right now on our part without a superintendent in place.” However, the main issue Baldwin County Schools has with Gulf Shores are the city schools continued demands for the school split to be completed by fall of 2018. Baldwin County Schools believes this will put more strain on the system than necessary, and think that fall 2019 is a more realistic start date. Although both groups disagreed on some issues, by the end of the first meeting Kevin Corcoran, Gulf Shores school board president, said he was thrilled with the outcome of the meeting. Gulf Shores City Schools has since hired Suzanne Freeman as an interim superintendent. She will serve the school system for 180 days, while they search for a permanent superintendent. The only issue left was where to send the nearly 600 children who attend Gulf Shores schools right now, who will need to be relocated when the city school is settled. Everything was looking like a go for Gulf Shores City Schools, until Wednesday. On Wednesday, Baldwin County school officials announced they will no longer negotiate with Gulf Shores, and have asked the state superintendent to intervene. Tyler asked Interim State Superintendent Ed Richardson to resolve the issue of a start date for the schools. Tyler told AL.com, “Gulf Shores has refused to respect our sincere concerns regarding the serious consequences of a rushed split this summer, leaving only a matter of months to prepare… They knew these facilities would be complete and ready for students in August 2019, to know this from the beginning and still demand a 2018 start date is disrespectful at best.” “There has been a lot of ‘talk’ about their vision and their hopes, but they have yet to offer anything of any substance on how they will do this, including the simple question I have asked in every meeting — how are you going to get this started in just a matter of months?” said Tyler. As of late Wednesday, no decision has been made regarding the two school systems.
