Seven candidates are being interviewed for interim superintendent role

File photo: Dr. Diane Gullett, the Superintendent of Marion County Public Schools during a meeting of the Marion County Public School Board in Ocala, Fla. on Tuesday, March 28, 2023. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2023.

Editor’s Note: This article was corrected on April 12 to include a seventh candidate that was inadvertently not identified and on April 15 to add additional work history of another.

Seven qualified candidates have responded to the Marion County Public Schools job posting for the interim superintendent position.

The goal is to fill the interim vacancy left by Diane Gullett, while the district has time to do a nationwide search, which they hope to complete by Feb. 2026.

Over the next week, district board members will individually interview the following candidates, identified in alphabetical order:

Dr. Danielle Brewer– a current employee with the district. Brewer has worked as an assistant principal and principal in MCPS from 2012-2021, and then became the Director of Curriculum, Instruction & Digital Learning for two years and the Senior Executive Director of High Schools and Secondary Curriculum for another two.

Donna Cress- a local who has been working with Signature Brands since 2012 and now serves as its Vice President of Human Resources. Prior to Signature Brands, Cress worked at MCPS from 1994-2012 as a teacher, assistant principal and principal.

Dr. Robert “Craig” Ham- a local retired Army Military Police Colonel who had a second career 23 years at MCPS in many roles, including Deputy Superintendent of Operations. Ham currently oversees a nonprofit that provides school supplies to students in need.

Dr. Anthony D. Hamlet– a resident of Delray Beach who has been the President and CEO of CSI Strategies LLC from 2022 to present, and has served an adjunct professor for American Intercontinental University & Nova Southeastern University since 2009. Prior to these roles, Hamlet served as a the superintendent of Pittsburgh Public Schools in Pennsylvania for about five years, and spent about ten years with the Palm Beach School district as a principal and assistant principal.

Melissa A. Kinard– MCPS Area Superintendent since 2021. Kinard has worked for the district since 1995 as a teacher, dean, assistant principal, principal and area director.

Dr. Wayne V. Rodolfich- the superintendent of Lake Wales Charter School System from 2022-24; served as superintendent of Pascagoula-Gautier School District in Mississippi for 17 years, after working for seven years as assistant principal and principal from 1999-2005 and a high school teacher from 1993-1999.

Dr. Timothy A. Smith– a resident of Orlando who worked as a teacher from 1988 to 1994 in Lake and Orange Counties before becoming an assistant principal, principal and Executive Area Director for high schools in Orange County from 1995 through 2020. For three years, Smith served as the superintendent of Escambia County Public Schools from November 2020 to May 2023, and now is currently employed back at Orange County Public Schools as the Director of Labor Relations.

In an April 10 email from School Board Attorney Jeremy Powers to the board, members were reminded that all interview notes and correspondence about the position and candidates (even on personal devices) were considered a public record.

The “Gazette” asked if there was any hiring matrix of sorts to whittle down the list before the candidates would be discussed publicly and was informed through email authored by Wantanisha D. Morant, the MCPS Human Resource Executive Director, that “the board chair will facilitate the conversation to select the final candidate during the April 17 Work Session.”

Board members will then choose one candidate and formally vote on that candidate at a special April 29 School Board meeting at 5:30 p.m.