Dr. Timothy Thurman

By John Zippert, Co-Publisher

After a second interview with the top two candidates for the position of Superintendent of Schools, the Greene County Board of Education selected Dr. Timothy Thurman for the position.
After a lengthy discussion, the Board made the selection of Thurman a unanimous decision of the five board members to show unity and support for the selection of Dr. Thurman to be the next leader of the educational system in Greene County.
In a separate motion, the Board designated a committee of the Board Chair (Leo Branch), Vice Chair (Robert Davis) and Legal Counsel (Attorney Hank Sanders) to negotiate a contract with Dr. Thurman, setting his compensation, benefits and other requirements, which will be reviewed and approved by the Board at its next meeting.
Dr. Timothy Thurman comes to Greene County after serving as the Superintendent of the City of Linden School System in Marengo, County. Thurman’s experience also included serving as Assistant Superintendent Linden City Schools; Principal Linden High School; Teacher and Coach Perry County Schools; Director Perry County Alternative School.  Education: Doctorate Educational Leadership; Master’s Education Administration; Bachelor’s Elementary Education. He also serves as the pastor of two Baptist churches in Marengo County.

The Linden City School system is the smallest in the state with 400 to 500 students and is about half the size of Greene County’s school population. They have three schools – primary, middle and high school – like Greene County.

In the interview, when asked about whether Greene County was robbing Linden by offering him the Superintendent’s position, Thurman responded by saying that he was leaving the system in “good shape” and that all his goals for the system had been met over the decade that he had been Superintendent.
“I have done what I wanted to do in Linden,” he said.

At the start of the interview, Dr. Thurman distributed a written plan to the Board on how he would tackle his first 90 days as Superintendent. The plan includes meeting with the Board to clarify goals and then meeting with staff to listen to their concerns, build relationships and develop a very specific implementation plan to reach the system goals. He said based on his experience; he could move “relatively fast to improve the conditions in under-performing schools.”

When asked what it would take to improve parent and teacher morale in the schools, he said regular communications with Board, schools and the community, as well as a winning football team. He said, “ In Linden, we were a 1A school, but no-one wanted to challenge us in football, which really helped people in the community and the schools to appreciate what Linden was doing within its school system.

Dr. Thurman said he was ready to go to work, as soon as the Board agreed on a contract and wanted him to start.