A year with an interim superintendent, and a search only starting now

What happened

Winslow has been run by an interim superintendent since September 2025. The board advertised special meetings on August 21 and 22, 2025 to interview candidates for the post, cancelled the second, and on September 4, 2025 met to send the interim superintendent's contract to the county for approval. Mark Pease has appeared on every agenda since as interim superintendent, on a contract from September 16, 2025 to June 30, 2026 at a base salary of $200,000 with no allowances or stipends, later extended for 2026-27. Superintendent H. Major Poteat stayed under contract at a base salary of $280,194 through June 2027, so the district carried two superintendent salaries at once; his retirement, effective September 1, 2026, was approved on March 25, 2026 with the board president abstaining, and the same motion placed an unnamed employee on paid administrative leave from April 13 to August 31, 2026. On September 9, 2026 the board finally voted 8 to 0 to hire the state school boards association to run a search, at a cost not exceeding $8,000, with the vice president saying it would begin on October 1, 2026.

Why it matters to families

A district of nine schools and nearly 4,800 children has had no permanent chief school administrator for more than a year while deciding a budget with an 11.6 percent tax rise, running two eleven-million-dollar heating projects, and adopting a new phone policy. The board discussed the selection process in closed session in January 2026 and heard a search firm's presentation in February, but retained nobody until September. None of the collected records says why the previous superintendent stepped aside, so parents cannot learn that from the public file; the board revised its own policy on employing a chief school administrator in February 2026, in the middle of the process.

The evidence

The August 2025 notices advertise interviews for the position of interim superintendent and then cancel the second date; the September 4, 2025 notice states the purpose is to approve sending the interim superintendent's contract to the county. The user-friendly budget's employee contract list gives Mark Pease's contract as September 16, 2025 to June 30, 2026 at $200,000 with no allowances or stipends, and H. Major Poteat's as July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2027 at $280,194. The March 25, 2026 addendum approves Poteat's retirement effective September 1, 2026 with the president abstaining and places employee 4756 on paid administrative leave from April 13 to August 31, 2026. The January 14, 2026 agenda lists the chief school administrator selection process in executive session, the February 25 minutes record a search consultant's presentation with no resolution voted, and the September 9, 2026 minutes record the 8 to 0 vote to engage the search at not more than $8,000.

The source