Wood Hired by Unanimous Vote as New Sallisaw Superintendent

Randy Wood

Roland native and former Sallisaw educator Randy Wood was hired as the new Sallisaw Public School Superintendent at a special school board meeting earlier today (Wednesday, May 8).

“The Board of Education is pleased to announce the hire of Mr. Randy Wood as Superintendent of the Sallisaw School District,” Board President Justin McGrew said in a statement to The Mix. “While assessing candidates, the board considered many qualifications, but placed a premium on experience. With nearly 20 years of Superintendent experience and an equally impressive teaching resume, Mr. Randy Wood was an easy choice.”

Wood will replace Jeremy Jackson, who tendered his resignation to school board members last month, citing that he and his family felt it was the best thing for them and the position did not seem to be the “right fit” at this time.

Wood is no stranger to the Sallisaw area, having lived here for many years. A 1971 Roland graduate, Wood was a teacher, coach and vice principal in Sallisaw before becoming Roland’s superintendent in 2001. 

“Mr. Wood is from this community and has previously worked in numerous roles within our District,” McGrew said. “The students and teachers of this district are very fortunate to have attracted a candidate with Mr. Wood’s qualifications.”

As an administrator, Wood’s philosophy is that of a network, where he is the center and things come across him, rather than a hierarchy, where things go from the top down, according to the Roland school website.

Under Wood’s leadership, the Roland school system has made many improvements across the campus, including a new administration building. In March, Roland voters passed a bond for a $9 million multi-purpose, community event center that would also serve the community as a storm safe shelter.

In keeping with the board’s open-door policy to listen to concerns of residents in the district, four people spoke during the public comment agenda item, with only three of those pertaining to the hiring of a superintendent.

After hearing comments from Dawn Maust, Ron Wyrick and Debbie Phillips, school board members went into executive session for approximately 30 minutes and returned to vote. The vote among school board members to hire Wood was 5-0, with Frank Sullivan III, Justin McGrew, Amanda Hatcher, Mike Daffin and Bobby Qualls all voting “yes.”

Sallisaw School board members voted last week to accept the resignation of Superintendent Jeremy Jackson, who was just hired one year ago as the new superintendent to replace Scott Farmer, who left Sallisaw to take the Fort Gibson School Superintendent position. Jackson intends to stay until his contract term expires June 30.

An agenda item for “discussion, consideration and action regarding Superintendent duties during transition to new Superintendent” was tabled for a later time.

Pam Cloud, Managing News Director

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