The Baldwin County Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to name Donald Stinson as its new superintendent. 

Stinson, of Metropolitan School District of Decatur Township in Indianapolis, will replace interim superintendent JaNay Dawson, who took over the spot after former superintendent Faron Hollinger left the post in January, more than a year before the end of his contract. 

The Board narrowed its choice for superintendent to three finalists and chose Stinson over Alan Lee, superintendent of Washington County Schools in Abingdon, Va. Samuel DePaul, of Abermarle, N.C., withdrew from the process. 

Stinson, head of a school system that includes about 7,000 students, was named Indiana Superintendent of the Year by the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents in 2005. He has been superintendent of Decatur Township since 2000 and is an Indiana native. He received his Specialist in Education degree from Indiana University. 

According to the Decatur Township website, initiatives completed under Stinson’s leadership include a $50 million construction and renovation facilities planning process, a new charter school, local business partnerships and a community center.

The graduation rate of Decatur Township’s flagship high school, Decatur Central High School, jumped from 79 percent to 94 percent between 2000 and 2004, according to the site. 

Stinson will take control of a school system in Baldwin County that is digging itself out of a financial crisis that has forced major action on the part of the Board of Education, including the termination of more than 400 teachers and support employees.  

Faced with balancing a budget that contained $75 million less than the previous year, the system will now receive the benefits of a 1-cent tax hike passed earlier this year by Baldwin County citizens. The tax is expected to bring in about $25 million per year for the next three years. 

According to the Decatur Township website, Indiana state budget cuts have forced a $5.6 million reduction in that system’s general fund, forcing the non-renewal of more than 60 teachers. Other measures offered to ease the financial struggles there include an early incentive retirement program. 

The next step for the Baldwin County Board of Education will be to negotiate a contract with Stinson, which will “begin immediately,” according to communications director Terry Wilhite. Salary figures for Stinson supplied by BWP and Associates, the superintendent search firm that coordinated the search, are $280,000, which may include retirement or other benefits. 

Wilhite said that the hope is for Stinson to be in office by July 1, though it may take longer for Stinson to relocate.

Other candidates for the position who interviewed before the board were Joe Kelley of Katy, Texas, Roy Pugh of Fort Worth, Texas, and Beth Wright of Lake City, S.C.