Before the school board offered him the Oak Ridge Schools superintendent job on Monday, Bruce Borchers, right, speaks to Carol Smallridge, left, and interim Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bob Smallridge, second from right. Also pictured is Borchers’ son Jack.
The Oak Ridge school board has offered the superintendent’s job to Bruce Borchers, who is now superintendent of the Rockwood School District in Eureka, Mo.
The position, which has a salary range of about $175,000, is still subject to contract negotiations.
Board members approved the offer in a 5-0 vote during a short special meeting on Monday at Riverside Grille in Oak Ridge.Â
A three-member committee that includes Oak Ridge Board of Education Chair Keys Fillauer and finance and human resource representatives from the school system will now negotiate a contract with Borchers, who had been one of three finalists. Board members said they would like to get Borchers here as soon as possible for ongoing budget deliberations.
Before Monday’s vote, school board members said Borchers was approachable and personable, has a young family—he has a wife and two children—and showed a desire for continuous improvement.
“I think he is the person who can take Oak Ridge to the next level,†Board of Education Vice Chair Bob Eby said.
It’s the second time the school board has searched for a new superintendent. The first round ended in December after four of five finalists withdrew. Three of them cited salary issues, said Don Longe, the Tennessee representative for executive search firm Ray and Associates of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Longe said the board’s decision earlier this year to increase the potential salary range helped; it was raised from about $150,000 to roughly $175,000.
“There’s no question that the increase in salary has drastically improved the quality of the candidates,†Longe said.
He said the school board can only negotiate a contract with Borchers of up to four years under state law.
The other two finalists were Dale Lynch, superintendent of the Hamblen County Schools in Morristown; and Keith Rowland, superintendent of Shenandoah County Public Schools in Woodstock, Va. The school board interviewed the three last week.
Borchers now supervises a district of 22,000 students. Oak Ridge has about 4,400 students. Longe said Borchers is interested in moving to Oak Ridge because it is a smaller district with a good reputation and family-oriented.
Borchers was in Oak Ridge on Sunday and Monday. Longe said he and his family were “blown away by how friendly everyone is.â€
“It really just seems like a fantastic district,†Borchers said before Monday’s meeting. Oak Ridge is a district focused on its students, he said.
Ray and Associates had received about 78 applications for the superintendent position by the March 1 deadline.
The school board hired former superintendent Bob Smallridge as interim superintendent in January. Smallridge was Oak Ridge schools superintendent from 1978-1998, and his current contract ends June 30.
The last superintendent, Tom Bailey, retired at the end of the year. He had been superintendent since 2002.
Note: This story was updated at 11:28 p.m.
Mike Mahathy says
Great!
Denny Phillips says
Yikes….
http://eureka-wildwood.patch.com/articles/rockwood-schools-face-huge-deficit-by-2013-2
Denny Phillips says
An excellent article on Dr. Borchers previous situation…
http://rsdstakeholders.org/2013/04/01/open-letter-to-rockwood-taxpayers/
Mike Mahathy says
See post by resident of his city above. The crap is that, crap!
A RSD Parent says
Congratulations to Oak Ridge. Dr, Brochers is a very good man and will do a great job. I currently have three children in the Rockwood School District and have been in the RSD my entire life. Dr. Brochers made positive changes in the RSD and it is sad that a small group of people (RSRS) completely destroyed this man reputation and the integrity of our school district. They have put out falsified information and created many hurdles to allow the RSD to move forward. I would not put any faith into any of the reports from RSRS. They have many issues of their own in which currently (and finally) are being exposed by parents and residents of the RSD. The RSRS have no accountability of their actions or funding and keep their identity secretive.
Dr. Brochers is a true educator and leader who’s main focus is to encourage students and teachers to succeed. Best of luck to Oak Ridge and Dr. Brochers.
Mark Harvey says
Kudos to the school board for their unanimous decision to offer the job to Mr. Borchers.
It was a pleasure meeting him and his family yesterday. I think he is the perfect candidate to continue the tradition of providing quality education to all students in Oak Ridge, and the Borchers family will be a great addition to our community. I look forward to the possibility of welcoming them to Oak Ridge and getting to know them better!
B Larson says
Congratulations to Oak Ridge. Our loss in RSD is your gain. Dr. Borchers provided much needed leadership. He developed with stakeholders a clear vision and was committed to increasing student achievement. He had courage to make the needed changes including a long standing process for awarding a “management” contract (which for 14 years was given to a construction company where a BOE member was employed). We will miss you, Dr. Borchers!
Jason Allison says
I love it. In this copy and paste world people don’t take the time to look for the real stories or the follow up’s to previous stories. St. Louis county as a whole is having budget issues, not just RSD. The proposed tax increase was voted no but now the residents are faced with other issues, like cuts in their fire dpt. Be responsible, don’t just post things about the school district and forget to include that this is impacting the rest of the community.
Denny Phillips says
I bring the information that should have already been brought. I should be thanked.
Jason Allison says
You only brought what bad information you could find. There was never any concrete proof that Borchers had ever done anything wrong. Now, that leaves us with the rest of the county and their budget issues. Like I said, it’s not just RSD that’s having money issues.
Jason Allison says
Now, forgive me if I’m wrong, but, this looks like it was held at a location in which we had to pay extra for. If so, why? Oak Ridge schools have plenty of places they can hold these types of things at without having to put the extra money into.
Dave Smith says
I think by “location in which we had to pay extra” you were referring to the “special meeting” held at dinnertime at the Riverside Grille.
It’s true that Oak Ridge Schools has seven or eight school cafeterias, but those cafeterias don’t serve dinner and the school board, school administrators, and the Borcher family would have had to brown bag their dinner or the Schools would have had to hire a caterer. That doesn’t seem like it would have been practical or cordial. Surely we can afford to put our best foot forward when hiring the top administrator.
Now, I wonder if Dr. Borcher will get the same over-the-top welcome that was extended to Joe Gaddis when he came (back) to town?
Jason Allison says
Well, I agree to an extent. Yes it was nice that we showed Mr. Borcher we’re not “cheap” but, what about the high school? That new building is very nice and they could of had their cafeteria make some food. I go on parents day at Woodland and they actually have very good food for the guests.
With everyone crying about Oak Ridge spending too much money on this and that, I’m surprised they chose that restaurant. How much was each plate and how much was it to reserve the room?
Don’t get me wrong, I welcome Mr. Borcher to Oak Ridge and I am looking forward to seeing what he may accomplish.
Sam Hopwood says
Word on the street is that the Joe Gaddis welcome-a-thon was orchestrated by a well known local home builder, including the fly-over of the Piper Cub with the “welcome back Joe sign” trailing behind. He was unable to secure the Blue Angels due to the sequestering budget problems. DANG!!!
Jason Allison says
I guess one has to take into account the legacy of Joe Gaddis. The community by large is in favor of him, just due to the number of ex football players that still live here. Oak Ridge has always been about football and the Wildcats. No complaints coming from me though.