The Arkansas Correctional School District Board on Wednesday appointed Deputy Superintendent Tracy Dowell as interim superintendent and voted to advertise for a permanent superintendent.
The superintendent’s position became vacant last week with the sudden death of William “Bill” Glover, 71, who had been superintendent since 2015. Glover had been with the district since 1976, serving variously as a teacher, principal and the district’s deputy superintendent.
Dowell was named deputy superintendent in 2022 and also has spent her career as a teacher and a site principal in the district.
The Correctional School District provides educational opportunities for prisoners and helps them achieve their GEDs. Nearly 27,000 inmates have earned their Arkansas High School Diploma in the district’s 50-year history, according to its website.
The Arkansas Board of Corrections, which serves as the district’s board, also met Wednesday and voted to advertise for applicants to fill the Division of Community Correction director position, which has been vacant since Dec. 31 with the retirement of Jerry Bradshaw.
Bradshaw testified in a January court hearing that he retired from heading the probation and parole agency because he didn’t want to work with former Corrections Secretary Joe Profiri, whose cost-cutting measures had lowered morale and jeopardized the safety of inmates and correctional officers.
That hearing arose from a lawsuit the corrections board filed challenging the constitutionality of two 2023 state laws the board alleges impinged on its authority. The judge agreed and issued a preliminary injunction blocking the laws. Attorney General Tim Griffin has said he will appeal the ruling to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
No mention of the lawsuits was made during Wednesday’s special-called board meeting, which was held via conference call. The call could only be monitored in a room at the Department of Corrections’ headquarters on Pike Avenue in North Little Rock.
Dina Tyler, the Corrections Department communications director, said the board felt some urgency to call the special meeting because of the vacancies created by Glover’s death and the vacancies created by Bradshaw’s retirement and corrections department Compliance Administrator Mark Colbert’s decision to retire.
The board also voted to advertise the compliance administrator’s position as open.
