Cochran officially returns to Adrian schools

The Adrian school board unanimously approved a contract for interim superintendent Del Cochran on Monday, but disagreed on other details of how to run the district after the departure of Chris Timmis.

Timmis, who has been superintendent since 2008, is leaving to take the same job at Dexter Community Schools.

Cochran is a former Adrian superintendent who retired in 2008. His contract runs from Aug. 12 through Dec. 31. His salary will be the equivalent of $36,865 per year. Because of state pension rules, he cannot earn more than one-third his pre-retirement salary.

The committee that recommended Cochran — of board president Jed Engle and board members Janet McDowell and Jon Baucher — also recommended hiring Adrian Middle School 7-8 principal Nate Parker as interim director of instruction and strategic initiatives, and moving Adrian High School assistant principal Harry Marok to AMS 7-8 as interim principal.

The second part of the plan is what generated the disagreement. Trustee Bryan Bott expressed concern about the impact of shuffling administrators at AMS 7-8, and both Bott and fellow trustee Randy Fielder asked whether the district could afford to add a position to the central office.

Baucher said that after the full board gave its feedback in July, “we got together and we totally dissected it again and started with a clean slate and said ‘What should we do?’ ”

But in the end, he said, the committee ended up back at the same plan — which, he said, isn’t perfect, but seemed to be the best option available.

Bott said he has heard from a number of teachers and parents who are worried about the district’s interim plan. He said Adrian is losing “a very effective superintendent,” and at the same time, “to compound that, we’re losing a very effective principal from one of our critical buildings.”

Timmis said Marok “knows IB better than anybody,” referring to plans to implement the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program at the middle school. He also noted that Marok has served as interim high school principal in the past.

Bott said he was glad to learn more about Marok’s qualifications, but asked why Marok couldn’t serve as the director of instruction and strategic initiatives, leaving the middle school staff as is.

Engle said the committee felt Parker’s background was the best fit for the position, and that moving him to the central office was the best decision for the district as a whole.

The board also asked Timmis to explain the systems in place to evaluate whether schools are meeting the academic benchmarks they should be. However, Bott countered, “I don’t think we can reduce the work of a good principal to somebody who monitors reports.”

Bott said any principal, no matter how talented, will have a difficult time jumping into the AMS 7-8 position on a short-term basis.

Bott and Fielder both said they were concerned about adding a position to the district on the heels of years in which many employees took pay cuts.

If the district adds a position, Fielder said, “it looks like we’re speaking out of both sides of our mouth.”

Baucher agreed in principle, noting that the board’s finance committee had previously rejected the idea of adding that position to the district’s central office. But he and other board members said they felt the position will be essential to making sure the district’s academic progress continues during the transition.

Baucher said he initially wanted to pursue one of the ideas Bott suggested — putting a committee of teachers in charge of continuing strategic initiatives like the IB program, international exchanges and the district’s new iPad application — but the sheer number of initiatives needing to be coordinated convinced him that there needed to be a single point person in charge.

McDowell said that even though Cochran was the committee’s unanimous choice for interim superintendent, “Del would be one of the first to say he’s not up to speed on all these new initiatives and that’s not where his strength is.”

“If we’re going to keep that momentum, we feel that we can’t afford not to have this position,” she said.

Timmis said he currently works 60 to 70 hours per week, between the regular management duties of the superintendent and working on all of the district’s long-term initiatives.

“With Chris,” Engle said, “we had the pleasure of a strategic planning person, a leader and a curriculum director all wrapped into one.”

In the short term, the cost of the added position can be offset by the much lower salary being paid to Cochran. But several board members agreed that adding a position permanently would be a tougher decision.

The board approved some of the changes Bott suggested, including changing “interim” to “temporary” in the title of the director of instruction and strategic initiatives and spelling out that the positions can “snap back” to their previous configurations at any time.

The board voted 5-2 to approve the interim staffing plan, with Bott and Fielder opposed.

The vote to approve Cochran’s contract was unanimous.

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