East Texas

JACKSONVILLE — Jacksonville JISD Superintendent Stuart Bird announced today he will retire when his contract expires in June 2009.

“I wanted to get this information to the board early enough to make its job of finding a replacement easier,” Bird said in a prepared statement, “we still have goals to meet this school year as a district that I’m really looking forward to, and I just want the transition phase to go as smoothly as possible.”

JISD Board of Trustees President James Houser said the board has known about Bird’s plans for about two months.

“We didn’t waste any time beginning the process. With Stuart’s full encouragement, we have contacted four search firms, three of which have responded to our request for them to give us their proposal,” Houser said, “and by being this far ahead of the game time-wise, we think we are in a better position to find the right person.”

A special board meeting set for at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 22, at the JISD Administration Offices, will get the procedure of finding a new superintendent started by allowing competing search firms to present propositions.

Bird began his career in education after graduating from Northwestern University in Natchitoches, La. He taught for 10 years in Sabine Parish, and then moved to Carthage where he spent 10 years as the school district’s band/fine arts director and 10 years as principal at Carthage High School.

Bird came to Jacksonville as principal of the high school in 2000. He became superintendent in 2003.