School leader chosen to end 'state of chaos'

The Burlington School Board appointed Stephanie Phillips as interim superintendent Tuesday night as it pledged to fill the district's "leadership vacuum" as quickly as possible and direct remaining energies toward a search for a permanent superintendent.

Phillips, the district's curriculum director, had served as acting superintendent for several weeks after former Superintendent Jeanne Collins was on vacation and then resigned June 30 under a separation and settlement agreement with the School Board.

School Board members praised Phillips's work and said her knowledge and experience would keep the district going during a transition period.

The appointment came nearly two months after the school district announced that Collins would resign and in the midst of an effort to regain public trust in the schools' finances.

The vote was 6-4. Commissioners Miriam Stoll, Scot Shumski, Mark Porter and David Kirk were opposed and asked for more time to search for candidates.

"You've been looking for an interim for some time," Nikki Fuller, director of diversity, equity and employee relations, said to the board. "You haven't found one — so the point is, it's time to look for a permanent, because that's what you really need. There's been enough losses, there's been enough slash-and-burn. It's time to start developing, growing, rebuilding our district."

School Commissioner Ben Truman of Ward 4 was among the members who argued against extending the search process.

"We're trying to get the district moving," Truman said. "I really disagree that we need to continue what's effectively a state of chaos for what's a matter of degrees of reward."

The School Board formally announced the search for an interim superintendent in May and had hoped to fill the position within weeks.

The process changed as the School Board learned more about what a search would entail, said School Commissioner Brian Cina of Ward 2, who led the committee working on the interim superintendent position.

At one point, Chairman Patrick Halladay said, the state Agency of Education was concerned about a "leadership vacuum" and asked for an expedited timeline.

"We're doing the best we can in a crisis," Cina said, arguing that appointing Phillips and directing the board's energy toward a permanent search would be the wisest decision.

Commissioner Stoll said she didn't think stability was the main goal, citing the financial and other challenges ahead of the school district in the coming year.

"It was not too long ago that we were promising the public that there was going to be a lot of change — there was going to be change in how we looked at our finances, change in the culture of the district, change in how the board operated," said Stoll, of Ward 5. "I guess I am worried that having an internal candidate, even a really excellent one, will not assure that we're going to be looking at things in a new way."

Commissioner Shumski, of Ward 4, asked for a few more weeks to open the position to other candidates — even though, he said, Phillips might be the best candidate at the end of that process.

"We are not in a crisis," Shumski said, saying that Phillips was already serving as acting superintendent and could remain. He also said he wanted to hear Phillips' vision for the interim role.

Fuller took issue with Shumski's statements and said three weeks would be impossible for a full interim superintendent search. The district has been effectively without a superintendent for six weeks, she said, and the district has relied on that internal expertise.

"You say you don't have a crisis? Yes you do," Fuller responded. "We've been doing somebody else's job, unpaid, and been doing it happily because we're doing it for the district, we've been doing it for the kids. ... We have lost what, seven people since January. We've got administrators doing double, triple duty, just trying to keep the boat afloat."

Phillips declined an interview request Tuesday and did not speak as the School Board discussed her candidacy.

Cina, who led the interim superintendent committee, and Halladay, the board chair, said details of Phillips's contract, including compensation, were not yet available Tuesday night.

A search for a permanent superintendent will begin in earnest in the next couple of months, Cina said, with the goal of hiring someone between Jan. 1 and March 1.

The district is also planning to hire a new finance director in addition to other financial consultants working with the district this summer.

Contact April Burbank at (802) 660-1863 or aburbank@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AprilBurbank