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Complete Forecast for  Sep 07 2008

TOP JOBS

By ADAM RUSSELL
Staff Writer

BULLARD — The Bullard Independent School District search for superintendent is complete. School board members voted unanimously during a special meeting to hire Lamesa ISD’s current top man.

Keith Bryant will end his career as Lamesa Independent School District superintendent June 31 and continue his administrative career in that same role within the Bullard ISD starting July 1, he said. The Saturday vote making Bryant the lone finalist for the position ended a six-week search to replace James Wright, who is retiring after 11 years as Bullard superintendent.

BISD school board president Michael Roy said experience separated Bryant from more than 50 applicants and that, combined with his personality, made him the logical choice. He said board members felt great about making the decision and feel confident Bryant will continue to heighten the district’s position in the region.

Bryant grew up in the small West Texas town of Lamesa, an hour south of Lubbock, attended high school there and then college at Texas Tech. He worked in the Lamesa district for 16 years, four as assistant superintendent and four as superintendent. He said the decision to move from the region was difficult, but represents a new challenge. He said during the six-week interview process he became very impressed with the area, the city and the people of Bullard.

“We are really excited,” Bryant said by phone. “Lamesa is a great school, with a great administration and school board and it will be difficult to leave but we feel lucky to have an opportunity to go to a community and school like Bullard.”

Bryant said Bullard’s expected growth makes the job enticing from both professional and personal perspectives. He said the challenge of maintaining and exceeding the schools’ past successes while addressing the changing dynamics of the district is an opportunity he looks forward to facing. Adding infrastructure and other resources to keep up with growth and challenging BISD students to excel academically are two initiatives the new superintendent said he would be working toward in Bullard.

Growth will be new to Bryant as a superintendent. He said Lamesa ISD has been losing 50 to 100 students per year during his time as an administrator. Lamesa is part of the West Texas trend rural schools in that region face as an increasing number of residents move to urban areas for jobs. Bryant said the school lost around 500 students in the last seven years. In that same time, Bullard ISD attendance has increased by almost 400 students, according to Texas Education Agency reports.

Academic achievement has steadily increased in the respective districts during Bryant’s and Wright’s stints as superintendents. The TEA accountability report shows Lamesa ISD increasing at a rate above the state average in practically every category during Bryant’s four years as superintendent. During the last four years under Wright, Bullard showed lower increases but higher overall scores.

Bryant will add three students to the school district himself when he and his wife of 17 years, Tanya, a tennis coach and special education teacher, make the move to Bullard. Bryant’s three sons, sophomore, Kirk, and eighth-grade twins, Haden and Holden, will attend school within the district. He said his boys hate to leave friends but, like his wife, are looking forward to the move.

Bryant said he expects the transition to be smooth and that he looks forward to working with an extraordinary administrative staff. He said he has met with Wright, who has expressed his willingness to help in any way to make the transition easy.

Roy said Bryant shares many of Wright’s characteristics and should fit in well.

“(Wright is) going to be missed,” he said. “We feel like we have someone to follow in his footsteps in Mr. Bryant.”