Source: Duplin has picked new schools superintendent
By Catharin Shepard
Published in News on May 20, 2010 1:46 PM
Multiple Alabama news sources reported today that Dr. Austin Obasohan will be the new Duplin County Schools superintendent.
According to the Selma (Ala.) Times-Journal, Obasohan announced the move Wednesday night when he resigned from his position as superintendent of the Selma City Schools.
He served as superintendent with the Alabama school system since July 2008. Obasohan previously worked as a principal at Concord Middle School and the Ralph Glenn Center in Concord, N.C.
According to Obasohan's biography on the Selma City Schools website, he was born in Nigeria and lived in England before moving to the United States. He earned a master's degree in education and an educational specialist degree from Virginia State University and earned a doctorate from Appalachian State Univer-sity.
Obasohan moved to N.C. in 1990 and served three years as a career teacher before serving six years as an assistant principal and nine years as a principal.
The Duplin County school board has not discussed the search for a new superintendent in public, much less voted to hire anyone. According to the North Carolina Open Meetings Law, "Final action making an appointment or discharge or removal by a public body having final authority for the appointment or discharge or removal shall be taken in an open meeting." However, a public body may consider the qualifications, competence, performance, character, fitness, conditions of appointment or conditions of initial employment of an individual public officer or employee or prospective public officer or employee in closed session.
Neither Obasohan nor Duplin school representatives could be reached for comment today by the News-Argus press deadline. A call to school board Chairman Reginald Kenan was not returned. Neither were calls to the school system office.
The school board is scheduled to meet in closed session tonight at 7:30.
Obasohan's last day with Selma City Schools will be June 30, according to the published report.
The Duplin County school board began searching for a new superintendent after current Superintendent Dr. Wiley Doby announced last November that he would not pursue a new contract with the school system. The North Carolina Association of School Boards is assisting with the search process. Calls to that office also were not returned this morning.