Thursday, November 15, 2007 12:09 AM CST
Candidate from Altamont is new superintendent
By DAVE FOPAY, Staff Writer
dfopay@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — Jim Littleford will be moving from a school district with about 750 students to one with around 3,000, but he expects an easy transition and says he’s glad for the opportunity.
“I welcome the chance to affect the lives of more children,” Littleford said Wednesday shortly after he was named the Charleston school district’s superintendent, starting a three-year contract on July 1.
The school board voted 7-0 to hire Littleford, who’s been superintendent of the Altamont school district in Effingham County since 2001, after a search that saw 21 applicants for the job. Littleford and two others were finalists after the board picked six applicants for interviews, and his home community of Altamont was the only one board members visited during the process.
Littleford attended Wednesday’s board meeting with his wife Karen and accepted the job after the board’s vote.
“We’re very excited to come to Charleston,” he said. “You have a great school system and we can’t wait to be part of the community.”
The other finalists for the job were Samuel Light, superintendent of Elbert County Public Schools in Elberton, Ga.; and Keven Forney, superintendent of the Oakwood school district in Fithian in Vermilion County.
President Gail Mason said the board had “excellent candidates,” but, ultimately, Littleford’s integrity and ability to communicate with diverse groups of people stood out.
“Trust is really important in the community and it’s especially important that we all trust each other,” she said. “We need someone at the helm who can facilitate that.”
Mason also said the board met people who described Littleford as “a workhorse” and someone who “speaks his mind, but diplomatically.” She and board Vice President Jason Coe and member Ron Miller made the visit to Altamont, and it was “remarkable” how consistently people talked about Littleford’s integrity, she added.
“We’re just very pleased,” Mason said. “The board had tremendous consensus.”
Littleford is a Vandalia native who’s also been in administrative positions in Effingham, Edwards County and Dieterich schools. He received his bachelor’s degree from Greenville College and specialist’s and master’s degrees from Eastern Illinois University.
He said he was interested in, and ultimately accepted, the Charleston superintendent’s position because he’s from the area, is familiar with Charleston and its “very progressive” school district, and likes the district’s involvement with Eastern. He said he will begin the transition to his new job right away though he won’t actually start for more than seven months.
“I am still the Altamont superintendent and things will go on there as they have gone on, but I am going to be in constant contact now,” Littleford said. He said he plans to look at the agendas of the board’s monthly meetings, study the district’s finances and “get to know the staff before I come.”
He noted the district has another “key position to fill”: that of assistant superintendent. He said he plans to provide input into the hiring of that person and thinks the assistant superintendent will be in charge of the district’s curriculum, as the person in that job has done for the last several years.
The deadline for applications for the assistant superintendent’s position is in January. The board plans to hire someone for that position at its March meeting.
The district has interim administrators in place for the current school year after both Superintendent Gary Niehaus and Associate Superintendent Darryl Taylor left for other jobs at the end of June.
Contact Dave Fopay at dfopay@jg-tc.com or 348-5733.
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