Roberts agrees to stay an extra year

Jerry Roberts Kilgore Independent School board of trustees say they can't do without him for at least one more year.

KISD board of trustees, meeting in executive session yesterday, asked Superintendent Jerry Roberts to stay one more year.

"The board has been so good to me through the years, that I agreed to stay. It just seemed like the right thing to do for them," Roberts said.

On August 1, Roberts announced he would retire at the end of the 2006-07 school year.

Doug Smith, board member, said with the resignation of David Hedrick and three more board positions coming up for election next year, this was a bad time for Roberts to retire.

"Things are going to get hectic next year; we could have four new board members," said Smith.

Hiring a new superintendent requires a lot of personal time on the part of board members, said George. With all the school construction, elections next spring and finding someone to replace Hedrick, this was just not the time to be looking for a new superintendent.

Smith said Roberts' contract will be rewritten and subject to a board vote at the September school board meeting.

"Roberts wanted everything to be done in open session," said Smith. "We will basically be taking his five-year contract and reducing it to two, which would end at the 2007-2008 school year."

Smith said this accomplishes two things, one it shows prospective job applicants for Roberts position that it will be final and two if there are four new board members it does not force them to have a superintendent for a long period of time if they would choose to hire someone new.