Former Fort Smith school superintendent hired as institutional relations director for new osteopathic college

A day after officially retiring as the Fort Smith Public School Superintendent, Dr. Benny Gooden was named executive director of institutional relations for the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education, the parent organization of the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Gooden’s retirement as superintendent was effective on June 30 and ended 30 years in the job – one of the longest serving superintendents in the state – and 50 years in education. His hiring at the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education (ACHE) was effective July 1.

“When I learned of his retirement, the first phone call I made was to Benny,” Kyle Parker, ACHE president and CEO, said in a statement. “With over 50 years of educational experience combined with national recognition for his work with the Fort Smith Public Schools, we saw the value of having Dr. Gooden on our team.”

Gooden will work with Arkansas public schools to create educational programs geared to boost interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). He also will work with other colleges and universities “for cooperative training programs leading to proficiency certificates or degrees,” noted the ACHE statement. Overall, the goal is to use such programs to create more interesting in pursuing jobs in the medical industry.

“Dr. Gooden will be of assistance in educating the public schools about the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine (ARCOM). Our goal is to get children, elementary through high school, excited about going into the healthcare profession,” Dr. Kenneth Heiles, dean and chief administrative officer, said in the statement.

Work began in February 2015 on the $32.4 million facility located in the Chaffee Crossing area. The school will be housed in a three story, 102,000-square-foot building, and a fully operational osteopathic college is expected to serve about 600 students. Each class will have 150 students. The American Osteopathic Association Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation approved in April the college for student recruitment. Officials with the osteopathic college began hiring faculty and staff to prep for the first class arrival in the fall of 2017.

College officials plan a community open house on Aug. 21.

GOODEN BACKGROUND
Gooden was raised in Clinton, Ark., and received a bachelor’s degree in music education from Harding University. He also received a master’s degree from the University of Arkansas and a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Missouri.

He was honored in 1992 by the American Association of School Administrators as the “Arkansas Superintendent of the Year.” In 1993, he was selected as one of 100 Outstanding School Administrators in North America by Executive Educator magazine. He was named “Administrator of the Year” by the Arkansas PTA in 1995 and in 1999 was the recipient of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Outstanding Educator award from the National PTA.

Gooden stepped away from the school district amid a controversy about changing the mascot and fight song at Southside High School, one of the district’s two high schools. The issue also resulted in the surprise resignation of popular district athletic director Jim Rowland. Rowland resigned during a heated May 23 school board meeting.

The controversial and often emotional process to change the “Rebel” mascot at Southside High School began in late June 2015 with a School Board committee vote. The Fort Smith Public School Board then voted 7-0 on July 27 to change the mascot and end use of the “Dixie” fight song that has been associated with the school since it opened in 1963. The Board voted to discontinue use of “Dixie” as the Southside High School fight song in the 2015-2016 school year and to drop the Rebel as the Southside mascot in the 2016-2017 school year.

Parker, with ACHE, said the mascot issue did not enter into the decision to hire Gooden.

“Honestly not. That was in no way shape or form a consideration that we had. I looked strictly at what he’s accomplished over the years and his amazing contacts,” Parker told Talk Business & Politics.

Gooden also in recent years was opposed by those critical of a proposed school facility expansions. Gooden in 2013 pushed for a third high school, saying the district’s population of 14,313 students was expected to reach 17,000 students by 2023, which would necessitate a third high school and re-alignment of freshman to the city’s high schools. Conservative estimates for construction of a new high school place the project at about $65 million, with the district needing seek a millage rate increase from 4.5 mills to 6.5 mils.

The business community opposed building a third high school in the Chaffee Crossing area – southeast of the city’s center. The plan was later dropped when an independent review indicated the district was growing but a third high school was not necessary.