Jim Young, who served as superintendent of the Russellville City Schools during one of its most successful eras, will again be at the helm beginning July 1.

The board of education Thursday selected Young to serve as acting superintendent while a search is being made for a permanent replacement for superintendent Roger Cook, who has resigned to accept a similar position in Taylor County.

Also the board entered into a contract with Bowling Green-based Leadership Strategies Group to serve as the advisor for the superintendent search. Leadership 
Strategies Group provides a number of services, with superintendent searches being 
one of its specialties.

Leadership Strategies Group is headed by Dr. Randall Capps, an experienced business consultant who was the founding chairman of the Department of Communication at Western Kentucky University. A partner and consultant in the group is Russellville High School graduate Wallace Herndon, whose late father of the same name was mayor of Russellville.

The consultant working with the board will be Phil Eason, a former superintendent of the Ashland Independent Schools. He also has served as principal and football coach at LaRue County High School in Hodgenville.
Eason said that in his initial conversations with Chairman James Milam and other members of the board of education, he found no preconceived ideas of who should be the superintendent. He said the only agenda of the board in that he found is to get the right person for the job.

“My sense is that this board only wants to do what is in the benefit of the students. They want an ethical and thorough search,” he said.

Leadership Strategies Group makes the following statements about superintendent searches on its website.:

“ Our search and selection process distinguishes itself from others by the powerful partnership between Leadership Strategies Group and the Kentucky Association of School Adminstrators. From this partnership we provide you a compressive list of services that go beyond the legal and adminstrative task to providing the knowledge, skills and leadership where you gain the insight and confidence to hire the right person to be your next superintendent.

“This is accomplished by following our four guiding principles  of the selection process. While prodiving you with a professional and ethical search and selection, we also assist  with everything from the preliminary planning to the appointments of the right person to lead the school district.

“These proven principles have been developed with over 30 years of experience in leadership and are the foundation of the process used by Leadership Strategies Group.

1.We cannot rely on instinct alone. There is no substitution for gathering knowledge.
2.Look beyond appearances. They don’t tell the whole story.
3.The right fit is the key to organizational success. Hire the right person for the right reason.
4.The informed mind makes a better decision. Decision makers must discipline their thinking with information to make a wise choice.”

A meeting to outline the plans for the selection process was scheduled for Tuesday evening, June 16. Eason said the process ideally takes about 10 weeks.