Clinton County will soon have its first ever female Superintendent of Schools as of July 1, Charlotte Bernard will take the reins from Superintendent Mickey McFall, who will be retiring after more than 10 years of service at the end of next month.

Bernard is currently the school district’s Director of Pupil Personnel (DPP). She has only served in that capacity about a year and a new person to fill that position will also have to be named prior to the next school year. She is also a member of the Clinton Fiscal Court, serving as Magistrate of the Fifth District and also being the first woman ever elected to a magistrate’s seat in Clinton County.

Two days following a special meeting (held last Tuesday, May 8) in which no action was taken on hiring a replacement for McFall from among the finalist who had been selected, the board made its final decision at an early 7:45 a.m. meeting last Thursday, May 10 on a split vote.

The previous meeting earlier in the week (May 8) had included about a 50-minute closed session to discuss personnel and review a proposed contract for the new superintendent, but no official action was taken when the board returned to open session and the meeting was immediately adjourned.

At last Thursday’s meeting, again with all board members present, there was no closed session prior to the motion to hire Bernard.

The motion to hire the new superintendent was made by Paula Key and seconded by Board Chairman Ned Davis, and read, “to award a new contract to Ms. Charlotte Bernard as Superintendent of Clinton County Schools for a term of two (2) years to begin on the first day of July, 2012 through the 30th day of June, 2014; to approve the contract submitted by Lindsey Bell and approved as to its legality by Board Attorney Lindsey Bell, and to authorize the board chairperson to execute the contract on behalf of the board. Motion also stipulates Ms. Bernard will be appointed as Secretary of the Board for the comparable term for no additional salary.”

The motion passed with Key, Davis and board member Junior Cecil voting in favor and board members Goldie Stonecipher and Kevin Marcum voting no.

The motion itself did not specify the salary that will be set in the contract itself.

The hiring of Bernard as the next schools’ superintendent culminated several weeks of seeking applications, Screening Committee interviews and a full day of finalists that were interviewed earlier this month.

When original application numbers were released, a total of 15 persons had applied, according to Butch Canty with the Kentucky School Boards’ Association (KSBA), a consultant who assisted the board in the superintendent screening process.

Apparently at the direction of the board, no out-of-state candidates were considered, leaving a total of approximately nine applicants to consider. Of the total number who had applied, Bernard was only one of two women and the total number of local applicants was never publicly released.

Also, the Superintendent Search Screening Committee had turned a list of three finalists they had deemed best for the position, but it isn’t known exactly how many of the total applicants were actually interviewed by the full board.