Bastrop, Tx–Bastrop school board president John Eaton denied a report published today saying trustees voted during a closed door session to name a lone finalist for the vacant superintendent’s job. The vote was taken in public following an executive session Monday, said Eaton.
A secret vote would violate the state’s Open Meetings Act. The Bastrop Advertiser reported the Dec. 7 vote came “during a closed-door session of the BISD Board of Trustees.” Eaton said official minutes of the meeting will reflect the vote was taken during a part of the meeting open to the public.
The Monday vote did name Steve Murray as the lone finalist to succeed Roderick Emanuel as superintendent of the 8,000-student Bastrop school district. Emanuel has been acting superintendent since announcing his resignation as superintendent last summer.
Six candidates were interviewed for the vacant post beginning Nov. 18, said Eaton. The six were culled from more than 50 hopefuls who applied for the position, he said.
By law the school board must wait 21 days from naming a lone finalist before making a formal job offer. Eaton said trustees expect to take the next step on Jan. 4 and negotiate an employment contract with Murray so he can take the reins of the school district by Feb. 1.
Murray is currently superintendent of the Little Elm school district in the Dallas area and was formerly superintendent in LaVernia. Before that he was a deputy superintendent in Del Valle, among other public education jobs. He is a graduate of Stephen F. Austin State University and what is now Texas State University-San Marcos.