The Marietta Board of Education held its monthly meeting Monday evening They returned from an executive session about recent professional staff resignations. (Photo by Amber Phipps)

On Monday evening, the Marietta City Schools Board of Education met to approve the resignation and retirement of seven staff members effective May 31.

New staff are in the process of being offered these positions, as advised by the interim superintendent.

The board also met in executive session in regard to the termination of Andrew Shu’s teaching contract. Effective Tuesday, Shu was suspended without pay benefits on the account of violating school policy.

The board and Interim Superintendent Alison Woods reported receiving evidence of Shu being on school premises under the influence, possessing or consuming alcoholic beverages. For this reason, his contract was terminated effective Tuesday.

Board President Cody Parman addressed the continued search for the new district superintendent. Parman said the process led by Paul Pendleton and Finding Leaders has come into contact with several applicants.

Parman believes these candidates are qualified for the position and could potentially be the new superintendent for the school district.

A work session will take place March 24 at 2:30 p.m. to further discuss the findings presented by Finding Leaders.

At the end of the meeting, there was disagreement amongst the board about the process of hiring the new athletic director, Hannah Kroft.

“The school board is about to vote on the athletic director role going forward and I have a lot of problems with the purported decision,” board member John Lehman said. “I did not agree and I was not in favor of having the guy who quit run the process to hire his replacement.”

In contrast, Parman released a statement describing the hiring process.

“The responsibility of hiring and evaluating district staff belongs to our professional administrators,” Parman said. “And we trust their expertise in making decisions that best serve our students and programs.”

Lehman claimed that a lot of people blame him for the current discrepancies in the school district but he said, “I inherited them and I’m here to clean them up.”

Parman said the AD position is demanding and they don’t want to prolong the process for any more time than necessary to make a decision. The focus is on long-term support and leadership, not just success for this year, he said.