R-II board sets new special session

By Phil Cobb | February 26, 2015 |

The Maryville R-II Board of Education announced Wednesday that it will hold a fourth special session Friday in addition to similar meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday and this evening that were scheduled earlier.

Tonight’s closed meeting will take place at 6 p.m. at the district’s central office adjoining the Maryville High School campus.

The Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday board gatherings were all declared closed to the press and public. Friday’s meeting, set to begin at 12:15 p.m., also in the central office, is open, but will be followed by a fourth executive session, according to the agenda.

All four sessions have been described as pertaining to staffing or the “hiring, firing, disciplining or promotion of personnel,” language used to describe allowable closed-door meeting criteria under Missouri’s Sunshine Law, which sets standards for public access to business conducted by governmental panels.

According to board President Frank Grispino and Superintendent Larry Linthacum, at least some of the closed sessions held this week involved interviews with finalists seeking Linthacum’s job.

Linthacum will leave his post at the end of June in order to accept the top administrative position with Jefferson City (Mo.) Public Schools.

Grispino said Tuesday that 19 people applied for the Maryville superintendent’s job, and that five were to be interviewed this week. The candidates’ names were not released.

At the R-II board’s last open meeting on Feb. 17, Linthacum said the governing panel could select a new superintendent as soon as Friday. However, Grispino said he was unsure if a decision would be announced this week.