The State Board of Education unanimously approved the contract for Interim State Superintendent Ed Richardson during Wednesday’s special-called meeting. Richardson, a state retiree subject to a $30,000 annual salary cap, will receive a $24,000 salary under the contract, which runs through Dec. 31, 2017. An interim superintendent may serve a maximum of two six -month terms.

Richardson, who previously served as state superintendent from 1995-2004, said his focus will be on the most pressing issues facing the board and ALSDE. He added that his ultimate objective is to ensure the next state superintendent has every opportunity to succeed.

Richardson outlined four key priorities in his report to the board, including submission of the state’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan; the state’s intervention into Montgomery County Public Schools; the 2018 budget; and the selection process for a new state assessment tool.

First, the state must meet the Oct. 13 deadline to submit its Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan to the U.S. Department of Education. After that date, the state will have a 120- day period to offer amendments and refine the plan.

Discussing Montgomery County Public Schools, Richardson said it will be important for the state to look closely at the model of intervention. “We will assess the (intervention) personnel starting next week,” Richardson said. “There are some issues that we created and some that were there. We’ll get them sorted out.” He also informed the board of a meeting this week to discuss his proposals with Montgomery County school board members.

Third, Richardson assured the board that the department will work hard on the 2018 budget, both for the department and for k-12. “We will not submit a budget with a deficit,” Richardson stressed. He plans to present both budgets at the board’s October work session to determine priorities and direction for discussions with lawmakers prior to the upcoming legislative session.

Finally, Richardson outlined his priority to work on the selection process for a new state assessment tool. The board voted in June to abandon the ACT Aspire test and use Scantron (formerly Global Scholar) for the 2017-18 school year. While not as timesensitive as the other priorities, Richardson warned the board if an assessment is not selected before the fall 2018 semester, it cannot be implemented until the fall 2019 semester, meaning two years of academic data will not be “useful.”

Richardson urged the board to give serious thought to the search for the next state superintendent, describing that task as “the most important decision the board will make.” He suggested the board identify three to five critical skills needed in a superintendent and encouraged them to limit the number of controversial policy decisions being made to prevent discouraging a potential candidate from applying.

In Wednesday’s work session, Dr. Joe Morton, president of the Business Education Alliance and former state superintendent, presented a revised state ESSA plan. Morton was hired as a consultant to help guide the ALSDE’s efforts to revise the plan after organizations including AASB, AEA, A+ Partnership, BEA, CLAS and SSA submitted a joint letter outlining concerns about its deficiencies. Those organizations were invited to collaborate with ALSDE staff, and the proposed changes are a direct outgrowth of that effort.

Morton said a major change was to remove components of “Alabama Ascending,” a strategic plan developed by the former state superintendent and never approved by the board. He explained the removal was an effort to prevent the next superintendent from being tied to a plan that is not his or her own. Morton’s presentation provided a summary of changes to the ESSA proposal.

In other discussion, the board reviewed upcoming resolutions that include increasing the Praxis score requirement for teacher certification. The next board meeting will be held in Montgomery on Oct. 12 at 10 a.m., with a work session to follow.