Covington Board of Education President Tom Haggard announced this week that the board would be beginning the process of seeking out a new superintendent.
Haggard made the announcement at the end of the board of education meeting on Thursday evening. According to Haggard, Superintendent Alvin Garrison had expressed a desire to retire at the end of his contract in June of next year. Garrison has been with the district for 12 years.
Haggard said he’d like to have a request for proposals, or RFP, for a consultant to advise in the search for a replacement ready for the board to approve later this month. He added that a posting for the superintendent position itself would ideally go out between Thanksgiving and Christmas break.
“Then, obviously, that would all then follow with everything regulated by [Kentucky Law] when the applications come in and the screening committee is convened, and then obviously we would spend the spring doing the work of selecting the superintendent,” Haggard said.
Haggard had not prepared any documents for Thursday’s meeting, and his comments seemed to catch Garrison by surprise.
“Mr. Chair, when were you expecting me to get something to you in writing, because I had not planned to do that anytime soon,” Garrison said. “So, I thought I would wait on the board to decide whether they were going to offer me another contract; that’s what I thought. Now, have I been contemplating? Absolutely, but I don’t think you have anything in writing for me designating that I will retire in [2026]. So, yes, I’ve said it, but I’ve also thought about reconsidering. So, we’ll wait and see what happens.”
“I want everyone to be very clear,” Haggard said, “I did inform the superintendent last week that I was gonna have this conversation. You [Garrison] had no objection to that conversation being had tonight. So, the grandstanding that you see here, I’m not sure what that’s about, but we will get something to you at the June 26 meeting.”
The board and the superintendent did not engage in any additional discussion of the matter at the meeting. Garrison and Haggard did not have any additional comments to make when contacted; however, Haggard did confirm that he planned on presenting the RFP documents at the meeting on June 26.
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