The Baldwin County Board of Education is expected to announce a permanent replacement for former Superintendent Alan Lee at its meeting Thursday night, following months of an internal search process.
Board President Norm Moore said during a work session at Robertsdale Elementary School that he planned to add the superintendent hire, along with a proposed contract, to Thursday’s meeting agenda. The board had opened the search in late October, posting the job on the school system’s website with an application deadline of 5 p.m. on Nov. 19.
“We do have a couple of applications in, and we will probably want to act on that on Thursday,” Moore told fellow board members.
Moore said after the work session that the board had decided to limit the search to candidates already within the Baldwin County school system, rather than opening it to outside applicants.
“We’re not taking any outside applications,” Moore said, noting that board members were already familiar with each of the internal candidates.
Interim Superintendent Robbie Owen, the former principal of Rockwell Elementary School, has been widely seen as the leading candidate for the permanent post. Owen was appointed interim superintendent in August and has since built strong support among teachers and community members through frequent school visits and outreach efforts, including videos documenting his stops at campuses across the county.
Moore previously told reporters that the board had heard extensive positive feedback about Owen’s approach to the job.
“He’s local; a lot of folks feel like he has a handle on local issues and local problems, and an understanding of how we do things and a familiarity of the issues and the opportunities that we have,” Moore said.
Owen has also taken a lead role in presenting the school system’s ambitious $350 million, 10-year capital improvements plan, unveiling the proposal at the county’s education summit earlier in the month. The plan calls for major investment in new schools and facility upgrades to keep pace with Baldwin County’s rapid growth.
If the board moves forward with a hire Thursday, it would close out a leadership search that began after Lee’s departure and give the fast-growing district a permanent superintendent heading into a critical period of expansion and technology investment across its schools, from Bay Minette to the Eastern Shore and the beach communities to the south.