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.
From bromance to breakup: How Elon Musk and Donald Trump blew up
The blow up marks the end of an alliance between the president and the billionaire that lasted far longer than many observers expected.
Israel says it’s arming clans to fight Hamas in Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged the government was arming factions in the Gaza Strip to combat Hamas, after accusations from an opposition politician.
Trump’s travel ban includes Afghanistan, where thousands await U.S. resettlement
President Trump's travel ban on a dozen countries includes Afghanistan. Since American troops left in August of 2021, many Afghans have already arrived in the U.S. but many more are still waiting.
After his mother’s death, Ocean Vuong wrote his way out of grief
Vuong's new novel, The Emperor of Gladness, is the first he's written, from start to finish, since his mother died in 2019. He says writing it was a way to honor her memory.
Trump says he and Musk ‘had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore’
Trump said he was surprised that his former adviser Elon Musk is scorching the Republican megabill, but said he thought Musk was wrong and conflicted in his criticism.
Concerns over conditions in U.S. immigration detention: ‘We’re hearing the word “starving” ‘
ICE detentions have surged, but deportations have lagged. Over the past month, NPR spoke to dozens of detainees, families and lawyers who spoke of overcrowded facilities lacking food and medicine.