The Evanston Township High School Board of Education voted 4 to 3 to hire Eric Witherspoon as the new district superintendent on Monday night.

Due to the close vote, Witherspoon, who is superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, met with the board on Tuesday night to discuss any concerns. He accepted the board’s offer following the meeting.

“I am so excited and honored to be selected for this position,” Witherspoon said.

He said he is looking forward to coming to Evanston, getting to know the people, and starting to work with everyone to close what he called the “perplexing” achievement gap.

He said has no specific proposals, but he wants to work closely with ETHS faculty to identify what programs are working best, what needs to be reworked and what should be added.

Witherspoon is taking over for Allan Alson, who will be retiring in June after 14 years as ETHS’s superintendent.

Opinions in Des Moines vary on the subject of Witherspoon’s eight years as superintendent of the 31,851-student district. Some commend him for balancing budgets and closing the achievement gap. Others wanted him fired.

In July the Iowa district decided to close an elementary school, but some community members thought they hadn’t had a chance to voice their opinions. Des Moines school board member Jeanette Woods ran for her position because of the controversy.

“People are really upset,” she said. “They were angered because of the process.”

Woods said some board members had already made up their minds about the issue before the public had a chance to speak. Public hearings were held about the decision while school was not in session.

Des Moines school board member Marc Ward said “it’s a minority, not the majority” that have been speaking out against Witherspoon.

Ward said the school had only about 148 students, and that it “didn’t make economic sense to keep it open.”

Ward, a board member since 1997 and the only board member who was present during the 1998 decision to hire Witherspoon, said Witherspoon came into the district at a time when it was almost broke and test scores were low.

“He’s responsible for the rise in test scores,” Ward said.

He also credited Witherspoon with improving in the district’s financial situation.

“Any time a school district has school closings or mergers, it’s going to be a very emotional time,” Des Moines school board member Ginny Strong said.

Strong also spoke about Witherspoon’s positive influence on rises in student achievement and said that “he’s been a dynamic leader.”

“I’m not surprised he’s being considered,” Strong said regarding the ETHS superintendent position.

Alan Young, the president of the Des Moines Education Association, said the group’s relationship with Witherspoon has been rocky. The group gave Witherspoon a vote of no confidence in May 1999 but rescinded the vote a year later.

“Many of our members didn’t feel good about decisions because they were not involved in the process,” Young said.

The group rescinded their vote not because all the problems disappeared but because they wanted to continue to work with Witherspoon, Young said.

“We want to be constructive, not just supportive and not just trying to bash him,” Young said.

Young said relations had warmed recently.

At Monday night’s ETHS school board meeting, several community members said they were dissatisfied with the lack of public involvement during the the superintendent search.

Former District 65 school board member Lisa Kupferberg warned the ETHS board against making hasty decisions, citing mistakes made with a previous D65 superintendent as an example.

“No superintendent should take a job on a 4-3 vote,” Kupferberg said. “Every single member should have faith.”

The other candidate to become ETHS superintendent was Dodge City Public Schools superintendent Gloria Davis.

Davis has had little controversy during her 5 years as the superintendent of the 6,203-student district, said Dodge City school board president Dan Reichenborn.

There are always a few people who disagree with the superintendent, he said, but on the whole there have been no major problems with Davis.

“She’s worked well with us,” Reichenborn said.

Reichenborn said that while Davis worked with the early childhood center, kids that graduated from the center were ahead of those who went to regular daycare, pre-school or stayed at home.

“She is a big supporter of teachers and students,” Reichenborn said.

Reach Anna Prior at [email protected].