By John Balch
News-Leader staff
The South Pike County School Board met in special session Monday night to handle personnel issues, including the hiring a new boys’ basketball head coach.
By a 5-0 vote with one member absent, the board approved the hiring of Kevin Bright of Horatio, who will come to Murfreesboro High School from the Ashdown School District. Bright will also serve as assistant football coach.
Bright was picked from a field of seven other applicants, including Jason Barker, Chance Lyle, Timothy Webb, Tank Woodley, Anthony Linville, David Davis and Levi Lock.
According to Bright’s resume, he has 24 years of coaching and teaching experience in basketball, football, softball and track as well as health, physical education and Social Studies. He describes himself as a “team leader who is open to new ideas, thinks outside the box and skillfully handles student/parent challenges.”
Bright has worked at two stints at Ashdown and has also coached at Horatio and Lewisville. He is a combat engineer with the U.S. Air Force and Arkansas Air National Guard in Little Rock and is a veteran of Operation Iraq Freedom and Enduring Freedom campaigns.
In other business during the special meeting, the board accepted the resignations of Adam Morris, Brooklyn Cox, Gene Strode and Lynn Gleba, and approved the hiring of Mckenize May as the including/resource teacher for the next school year.
The board also voted to hire Caden Dixon and Albert Quiroz as student workers for the remainder of the school year.
Monday’s meeting was scheduled to start at 7 p.m. but due to the Rattler baseball game going long the meeting did not convene until 7:43 and adjourned at 7:53.
