MACON, Ga. — Bibb County school board member Daryl Morton says after Romain Dallemand's disastrous time as superintendent, a failing school system and a struggling board, Curtis Jones seemed like a breath of fresh air.
"One of the first votes I took was to hire Curtis Jones," said Morton.
Now the superintendent is just weeks from retiring and the search for his replacement is nearly over, but Morton wishes Thursday's vote ended differently.
"All things being equal, we should have an internal candidate as the next superintendent and in my mind, we had internal candidates superior to the one the board put forward last night," he said.
That didn't happen. The school board voted 6-2 to name Dan Sims as the sole finalist for superintendent; Morton was one of the two opposing votes. He says it was about experience.
"The organizational chart shows you where people are in the leadership in the system, so when I looked at Atlanta Public Schools, Dr. Sims is way down that organization chart,” he said.
Brenda Williams has a granddaughter in Bibb County Schools and she's pleased with the district, but she also opposed Sims' selection for a different reason.
"We're not selecting women to fulfill these leadership positions. I’m very concerned about that. What pathway do we have for local people to be selected in leadership positions,” she asked.
Blake Sullivan, a businessman and former mayoral candidate, also spoke to the board about continuity.
"I thought we had a good slate of internal candidates and so I spoke about that,” said Sullivan.
Ultimately, he says he has to trust the board’s decision.
"Dr. Sims, I support you, I want you to be successful because if you're successful in this community, then our kids are going to be successful and then our community is going to be that way too," he said.
The Bibb school board recently released results of their public survey showing many members of the public supported two in-house candidates: Tanzy Kilcrease and Julia Daniely.
State law says the school board must wait at least two weeks before voting on Sims. Jones is scheduled to retire June 30.