Superintendent to step down, Celina Record

Celina ISD Superintendent to step down Lisa Ferguson, lferguson@starlocalmedia.com Jan 7, 2016 0 Celina Independent School District Superintendent Donny O’Dell plans to step down from his post later this month. O’Dell, who has been with the school district for 28 years, has served as superintendent since 2012. He will officially retire from the district in August. In a special meeting of the Celina ISD Board of Trustees on Thursday, current Assistant Superintendent Rick DeMasters was named the lone finalist to fill O’Dell’s position. The state of Texas requires a waiting period of 21 calendar days after a district names a lone finalist before an official offer of employment can be made. An offer of employment contract for DeMasters is expected on Jan. 28 or Jan. 29. “I think that Mr. DeMasters is the most well-equipped person” for the job, O’Dell said earlier this week. “He knows the community now … and I think it’s just a perfect fit, and I think he will do an excellent job.” In January 2015, the Celina ISD school board unanimously approved a one-year extension of O’Dell’s three-year superintendent contract. However, the 65-year-old said he made the decision to retire last spring following a career in education that has spanned more than four decades. “Forty-two years is long enough, and I know that I will not be able to finish a lot of the things that are beginning to get started” within the district, he explained. “I felt like it was in the best interest of the district, and my wife and myself to go ahead and try another chapter.” A lifelong Celina resident and graduate of Celina High School, O’Dell worked at the school as a math teacher during the early 1970s, and was an assistant to head football coach G.A. Moore. The pair left later that decade to coach in Pilot Point, but O’Dell returned to the district in the ‘80s to serve as the elementary school principal for two years. He later became assistant football coach under Joe Stubblefield, and also returned to the classroom to teach. Following a six-year stint as head football coach, athletic director and assistant superintendent for Sadler and Southmayd Consolidated ISD, O’Dell returned to CISD in the mid-‘90s and worked as the high school principal before being promoted to assistant superintendent in 1999, and later superintendent. “We’ve been blessed and honored to be able to work with (O’Dell) and have him lead our district over these last many years,” said Kelly Juergens, president of the Celina ISD Board of Trustees. “You never want to see somebody go, especially somebody who has done as many good things as he has.” Although he is stepping down as superintendent, O’Dell said he will remain with the district until August and work alongside DeMasters “to make a smooth transition from my regime to his regime. I felt like that was in the best interest of the district.” It should remain business as usual in the superintendent’s office over the next few months as the men essentially reverse roles, DeMasters said. “We’re more of a partnership-type of leadership team versus a boss and a subordinate, so that won’t change,” he said. “Other than the (job) title itself, we’ll still continue to work collaboratively together. I will continue to bounce things off of him and get him to council me with his wisdom.” DeMasters, 57, has worked for CISD for five years. He served as principal of Celina High School for a year before stepping into the assistant superintendent position in 2012. Earlier in his career, he spent four years as assistant superintendent at Van Alstyne ISD. He also worked in other districts around the state as a teacher, athletic director, coach and administrator. O’Dell said that last year DeMasters received a job offer which, had he chosen to accept it, would have seen him exit CISD. “I told the board at that particular time that I planned to step down during this next school year,” he recalled. “We wanted to keep Mr. DeMasters here. We basically decided that was the way we wanted to go, and that enabled being able to keep him and have him step in right behind me.” Earlier this week, DeMasters confirmed that he did pass on an “opportunity” in South Texas. “Our school board was very gracious and rose to the occasion knowing what Mr. O’Dell’s possible plans were going to be,” he said, “and through several discussions and meetings, we were able to work something out – there’s never a guarantee - but with the opportunity to step into that role if and when it should develop.” Poised to experience the same tremendous growth and expansion in the coming years as the city that it services, DeMasters said “change is imminent” for CISD, but insisted that he will not be “a large change agent” in his new role. “There will be some things that we’ll have to take care of that will come naturally, and we need to be prepared and organized to do just that,” he explained. “The growth is coming with or without us, but we have an opportunity to embrace that, manipulate that how it needs to fit us and hopefully educate those who come to us about Celina culture and continue that process.” School board President Juergens said he thinks DeMasters will do a “phenomenal job” as superintendent. “Having the qualifications and the knowledge and the ability, plus many years of working with Donny, I think everything will go very smoothly,” he said. DeMasters said he knows he’ll have some big shoes to fill in O’Dell’s absence. “You never want to follow a legend, and I consider Mr. O’Dell to be a legend,” he said. “He’s the type of leader that people want to follow, that they want to work for, that they want to emulate.” O’Dell credits his career success to those he has worked with over the years. “I’ve been very blessed to be in the district, and I’ve had a lot of support. I would just like to thank everyone who is responsible for the opportunity to serve,” he said. “More or less the expression `living the dream,’ that’s what I’ve done.”