McFerran praises Fort Smith Public Schools, says a focus if re-elected to School Board is hiring a new superintendent

Susan McFerran has learned a lot since being appointed to the Fort Smith School Board in 2012. She won her first election running unopposed the following year. Her first two years were an admitted “learning experience,” something she said were altogether necessary for years three and four.

“There is so much to learn on this,” McFerran said, noting that the Fort Smith School District is the largest employer in the city. “When you think about that, for the first two years you just need to sit back and listen because there are those who have been on the board so long that they kind of know the protocol and how things work. I’m very opinionated and outspoken. I know that about myself, but those first couple of years I felt like I needed to listen and learn.”

Then came 2015.

McFerran made a motion at a July 27, 2015, meeting that would – at least symbolically – change the school district forever.

THE REBELS MASCOT
When the meeting was over, McFerran was joined by all six remaining Board members in removing the Rebels mascot and “Dixie” fight song from Southside High School. After five decades of controversy, the last remaining vestiges of Confederate imagery were gone, but the hard feelings were not.

It isn’t a topic McFerran wants or plans to talk about, nor is it one she plans to incorporate into her campaign for reelection in September, but she is fully aware of its aftereffects.

In 2015, two of her fellow Board members – Russell Owen and Rick Wade – were ousted in landslides by current Board members Wade Gilkey and Bill Hanesworth, respectively. In the case of Owen, Gilkey won 75% of the vote (900 votes) to Owen’s 25% (295 votes). Wade’s race was only a little closer with the incumbent losing 72% (2,333 votes) to 28% (928 votes).

Perhaps more telling, however, is the fact that McFerran, who cakewalked to her first reelection bid with no opposition now has two opponents for her Zone 2 position in Marc Werschem and Brian Means.

Board members Gilkey and Hanesworth have since backed off their opposition to the name change and have publicly stated they will not support attempts to change it back.

NO MUDSLINGING
What McFerran will say about the Rebels mascot issue is that it has been “a rough year, but I really feel like everyone is entitled to their opinion, and that we were doing the right thing at the right time.” McFerran said she and other Board members have seen “a lot of encouragement from the community to move forward with this, and it has been tough, but it’s brought a lot of people together.”

She added, “I know it has caused a lot of heartache for some people, but like I said, ‘it was the right thing to do at the right time.'”

One of her opponents – Werschem – has been vocal about the Rebels mascot change in online petitions and on Facebook, but for McFerran, “that’s not an issue that I would like to address at all with my campaign.”

She continued: “I don’t know either (candidate) personally, so I don’t know. I think it is great of anyone to care enough to run if they have a belief. Our beliefs may not be the same, I don’t know. But if you believe strongly enough in something, then get out there and do something about it. I’m just going to run a good race and try to be as nice about it as I can. I’m not going to mudsling.”

Concerning their beliefs being the same, a previous candidate profile TB&P published spotlighting Werschem illuminates many differences between the two. While Werschem criticized the Fort Smith School District for the “poor quality of education” it provides and stated as part of his campaign that he wanted to make Fort Smith Schools “great again,” McFerran has an unshakable belief that Fort Smith Schools “are already great.”

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND POST-ELECTION GOALS
McFerran has been a “cheerleader” for Fort Smith Schools for much longer than she’s been a board member. An elementary education graduate from the University of Arkansas, she taught for 32 years with the majority of that time spent at the front of a Fort Smith-based classroom.

Now retired, she continues to believe the district is excelling and has a bright future that is about more than the mascot of a single school.

McFerran holds the district’s technology program up as one of the best around, noting how Belle Point Alternative Center is the first alternative learning school in the nation to be a part of the New Tech program, which features an instructional approach centered on project-based learning and integrated technology in the classroom.

“Our technology is always improving and it needs to be in order to stay competitive,” McFerran said.

She also holds up the district’s free and reduced lunch programs as well as its free breakfast and summer lunch programs as ways Fort Smith is going beyond the call of duty to provide an environment of dignity, respect and stability to students of all backgrounds and economic classes.

While McFerran said she was “disappointed” funds had not come through to add five additional preschool classrooms last year, she praised the preschool program that is in place, offering busy and hard-working families childcare support from certified pre-K teachers. If reelected, she hopes to revisit and expand that program, but acknowledges the first order of business will be to find a superintendent to replace Dr. Benny Gooden, who stepped down in April.

On that search, McFerran said the Board had hired Ray and Associates National Executive Search to help with the sourcing of applicants and background checks. The firm will offer up a few finalist candidates that the Board will focus on the rest of the year, and McFerran expects work toward that goal to begin immediately with the plan for a new superintendent to be in office by July 1, 2017. McFerran said the Board will seek out community involvement and interviews with finalist candidates will be by committee and open to the public.

“We are going to have to hit the pavement hard on a new superintendent because this firm will give us deadlines and we’ll have to make sure we’re following that. So the election is in September. I would expect October, November, and December to be filled with meetings, so maybe there’ll be time to put up a Christmas tree, but that’s about it.”

If elected, McFerran also wishes for the Board to tackle the “lots of renovations that need to be done” throughout the district.

The election is set for Sept. 20, with early voting to begin Sept. 13. Early voting sites are at the Sebastian County Courthouse and Greenwood City Hall.