State Board Approves Contract For New Superintendent Michael Sentance
Alabama’s new school superintendent Michael Sentance starts work Monday with annual salary and benefits of about $240,000. But the vote to approve his contract came with controversy over how the search was handled.
A majority of the board members, including Gov. Robert Bentley, favored the contract Thursday for Michael Sentance, a consultant and former secretary of education in Massachusetts. Sentance sat through the debate over the search process and his qualifications, then thanked the board for its vote.
“I know there’s a great deal of work I have to do in this state to earn the respect and trust of the educators,” Sentence said. “My goal here is to raise the achievement of students in Alabama, so that whatever people think about Alabama, they know that their schools are good and improving.”
Board members Ella Bell and Jeff Newman questioned hiring Sentance because he withdrew his name from consideration in June and resubmitted it after the deadline for applications.
“Of all the hiring I’ve ever done, once you jump off the train, you’re off the train,” said Newman, a former local school superintendent. “Is it legal for us to do this?”
Gov. Bentley, who is board chairman by virtue of his position, said the board condoned the search process by going ahead and nominating Sentance at a meeting earlier this summer.
Sentence replaces Dr. Tommy Bice who resigned in March.
Alabama coal mine keeps digging after hundreds of fines and a fatal explosion
Following the death of a grandfather, Crimson Oak Grove Resources has left a community afraid for their homes and lives. An expert warns one resident may need to evacuate her home while she still can.
Florida’s 6-week abortion ban will have a ‘snowball effect’ on residents across the South
Abortion rights advocates say the ban will likely force many to travel farther for abortion care and endure pregnancy and childbirth against their will.
Attitudes among Alabama lawmakers softening on Medicaid expansion
Alabama is one of ten states which has not expanded Medicaid. Republican leaders have pushed back against the idea for years.
Birmingham is 3rd worst in the Southeast for ozone pollution, new report says
The American Lung Association's "State of the Air" report shows some metro areas in the Gulf States continue to have poor air quality.
Why haven’t Kansas and Alabama — among other holdouts — expanded access to Medicaid?
Only 10 states have not joined the federal program that expands Medicaid to people who are still in the "coverage gap" for health care
Once praised, settlement to help sickened BP oil spill workers leaves most with nearly nothing
Thousands of ordinary people who helped clean up after the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico say they got sick. A court settlement was supposed to help compensate them, but it hasn’t turned out as expected.
