JoAnn Hoover, mother in law of soon-to-be Superintendent Darla Hoover, sits in the front row of the audience after the board of education unanimously approved her contract.
She dabs the happy tears from her eyes.
She’s known Darla Hoover since she was 14, working as a secretary in Darla's school. “I’m so proud of her,” she said.
At a special meeting on Monday afternoon the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation (EVSC) board of education approved her appointment unanimously.
Hoover’s been with the district for 24 years and is currently the Chief of Schools and Instructional Core. She will be the first female superintendent and she’ll start in July after current Superintendent David Smith’s retirement.
Hoover said challenges ahead include attracting the best teachers and administrators to the district.
“I think the other thing is, there are persistent achievement gaps that we're mindful of and really working hard so that all students are successful,” Hoover said.
Superintendent David Smith said previously, that he expects the public to be very pleased with the board of education’s choice. He feels the board did their due diligence with this process.
“I think the public will be very pleased, and someone that everybody in the community can and I hopefully will get behind,” Smith said. He’s been with the district for 43 years, and the superintendent for 14.
The BOE worked with Steve Horton on the candidate search. He said superintendents usually only stay on for about three years. He said the fact that Smith stayed for 14, reflects a stable school district, which can be appealing to applicants.
Hoover has held multiple roles at EVSC including teacher and school principal. She’s also an EVSC graduate and parent of students.
She said her first task is just “listening.”
“Listening to all of our stakeholders, learning from them what's important, what's going well and what's not going well, and then working with the board to develop our vision and our strategy moving forward.”
Overall she said she wants a school district where every student has the support to be successful and where staff feel valued, supported and empowered to do their best work.
“… and where we're in true partnership with our families and our community.” She said she’s also looking forward to working with the EVSC teachers union as well.
Hoover was one of 16 applicants.
While her contract was available for 10 days prior, the public hearing and the vote to approve her contract were on the same day.
This didn’t sit well with two members of the audience, who spoke up during the public hearing portion of the meeting. Rita Taylor for example felt the selection process was not transparent.
“Now today, we're here to give comments, and then immediately you will vote to hire. If the decision has already been made,” she said. “What is the purpose of the public comment? Why are we here?”
School board president Karen Ragland said the process was about protecting the careers of the applicants who weren’t selected.
“It's not a matter of non-transparency, it's just a matter of just respecting the candidates.”
Hoover’s base salary will be $215,000 a monthly auto allowance of one thousand dollars, deferred compensation of $30,000 and a 3-percent base salary increase pending satisfactory evaluation.
Taylor was also concerned about Hoover’s compensation
“You say that we're in financial hard times, but the contract says otherwise,” she said.
In 2022, Smith’s salary was $270,464.28.
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