Ken Chandler, of Winona, was hired as the next head football coach at Bruce High School on a 3-2 vote by the school board in a special called meeting Tuesday morning.
Chandler, who most recently coached at Winona Christian, will succeed James Ray whose resignation was unanimously accepted by the board in the same meeting.
“I’m excited about this opportunity,” Coach Chandler said Tuesday morning when contacted by The Journal. “Bruce has a great tradition and program. I coached at Ackerman when we played Bruce regularly. I just see it as a great opportunity and can’t wait to get started.”
Ken Chandler
The 3-2 decision to hire Chandler Tuesday morning came on the heels of a meeting Monday night in which no board member would offer a second for his hire.
“My concern is you’re pushing the board to vote for this man,” Board member Reginal Baskin of Bruce said, who was one of the “no” votes. “We did this last night and you couldn’t get a motion. Then you call me on short notice this morning and I have to drive back from out of town to do this.”
“Last night there was a lot of confusion, a lot of people who were unsure what they wanted to do, so it was tabled,” board president Danny Harrelson said. “After some of the board members overnight looked into it, they were ready to have an opinion.”
“I haven’t pushed anybody to do anything,” Harrelson said.
“We needed to get this done as soon as possible,” Harrelson said. “If this was going to be rejected, we have to keep looking.”
“That’s where I was last night,” Board member Bubba Weeks, of Bruce, said. “I felt it was way too big a decision to look over something for 15 minutes and be able to make a correct decision. I knew the guy's name, but other than that I didn’t know anything about him.”
Weeks said he spent all morning on the phone talking to references and Chandler himself.
“I feel like we’ve made a good hire,” Weeks said. “I know we’re not going to make everybody happy with the decision, but Bruce has to have somebody they can get around and rally and move forward.”
Weeks said Chandler and his family plan to move to Bruce as soon as they can.
Baskin said he preferred former Trojan Jamal Jackson get the job.
“Not because he’s black, but I thought he could do a really good job and the kids would respect him,” Baskin said.
“I thought he had a really good resume, too, and not just because he’s an African-American, although we do desperately need more African American teachers in this district,” said board member Precious Thompson, of Calhoun City, who cast the other “no” vote. “When we have good, qualified, hometown Calhoun County candidates I would first and foremost like to see them get the opportunity before we bring people in from outside.”
“I agree we need more African American teachers,” Harrelson said. “The board’s position is to express to (Superintendent Mike) Moore that we want more African-American teachers, but as far as interviewing candidates, that’s not the board’s job. That’s the superintendent’s and the principals’ job. It’s about accepting or rejecting their recommendations and then holding them accountable for it.”
Moore presented Chandler to the board at the regular meeting Monday night saying, “Chandler has been outstanding every where he’s been. He’s one we targeted from day one and we feel real good about him.”
Harrelson tried numerous times to get a motion and second from the board to hire Chandler, but none were forthcoming after several long intervals of silence.
Weeks made the point he was not prepared to make such “an important decision” on such short notice.
The meeting adjourned with no decision made and then a special meeting was called Tuesday morning when Weeks made the motion to hire Chandler. Don Hardin of Vardaman seconded and it was approved 3-2.