The Neosho R-5 School Board voted to approve Dr. Jim Cummins as the new assistant superintendent of business and finance during a regular school board meeting Monday night at Neosho Middle School.
The board voted 6-0, with Shirley Cummins, mother of Jim, abstaining.
This decision comes two months after school board officials opted not to fill the assistant superintendent of business and finance position then held by Charles Brazeale, who accepted a position with the St. Charles School District and left his Neosho position this morning. After hearing of the board’s decision, Cummins told the Neosho Daily News that he was “extremely excited on coming back.”
Cindy Norman, president of the Neosho R-5 School Board, told the Daily News the board decided to fill the vacant assistant superintendent position because “at that April meeting, we had all of this bad economic news coming down from the state and it was changing all of the time. It was hard to get a fix on how bad it was or how bad it was going to get. While the economic news is still bad, at least we have a fix on it now and know that with our fund balances and our budget we can go ahead and fill the position at this time.”
A 1984 Neosho High School graduate, Cummins – who still lives in the school district – was a business teacher at Neosho High School, then left to become the Diamond High School principal for a year. He then left Diamond to be the superintendent at Wheaton School District for three years. Currently, Cummins is an assistant superintendent for the Carl Junction School District. He has held that position for the last two years.
“I am going to be meeting with Dr. (Richard) Page (superintendent of Neosho R-5 School District) in the next few days to kind of lay out what his expectations will be for me and the things that I have and that can hopefully complement the things that he has… we may do some of the things together since he was in that position before as well,” Cummins said. “Typically, the assistant business of operations is going to take care of the budget, oversee the bookkeeping department, any questions that come up on revenue expenditures, those type of things, and be there to assist that department. But also, a lot of times, that position will be in charge of classified staff, busses, custodians, food service, building projects…
“In my role at Carl Junction, that is what I did for their district. Here, I would suspect much of the same, but (Page) might have some other areas that he wants me to handle and he may maintain some of those areas.”
Page said of the board’s decision to hire Cummins, “I think that there is a little bit of trying to build a succession plan, so when the day comes that I leave there will be someone here to follow up.”
Cummins said coming back to Neosho is a dream come true.
“Dr. (Mark) Mitchell (former superintendent of the Neosho School District) told me that the best way to move up in administration here at Neosho would be to go get some experience in other districts,” Cummins said. “So when I left the (Neosho) district, I left with the intent of going out and trying to finish my degree and get that experience. I was fortunate enough, not only to get the experience and finish the degree, but also to work with some amazing administrators and school districts in the small schools where basically you had to do everything. You learn a great deal and you are in charge of all faucets. Then to go and work at Carl Junction, it was great because they have a lot of things going on that they do very well and learn from the folks up there. It has been a great six years with the people that I have gotten to work with and the experiences that I have had, but I am certainly excited to come back here where my family is at.”
Cummins will officially start his new duties in early July.
“I have some responsibilities at CJ that I need to fulfill,” he said. “The board and Dr. Bill Cook have been extremely supportive and knew that when I took the job (at Carl Junction) my hopes were to come back to Neosho…I will make sure that we will have a smooth transition up there.”
Asked about goals in mind for the Neosho R-5 School District, he said that the immediate goal is to find out where he needs to fit in, and what Page expects of him.
“My immediate goal is to hopefully bring my finance background, not only in the school business, but finance background before I got into the school business to help during what are really some tough times,” Cummins said. “School finances re a little bit more complex than others simply because we can’t just raise our price on things, we have to deal with the revenues that we are given. So figuring out the ways that least impact student achievement, whether it be movement of money, the movement of faculty to maximize class sizes and those type of things, there are lot of things that go into it. We also need to maintain close contact with Jefferson City and kind of what is going on with the legislature. I think that I can be an asset to the school district and finding out where Dr. Page and Mrs. (Alma) Stipp (assistant superintendent of curriculum) think where I can best help out in the short term is what I look forward doing. I love this district and want to see the students have the best chance to succeed and that is surrounding them with teachers, coaches and activities that they can be successful.”
Cummins and his wife, Renee, have three children: Shelby, who just graduated high school, Catie who will be a junior in high school, and Bailey who will be a seventh grader.
“All of them are Wildcats and this is exciting for them as well,” he said.
