Superintendent named for Wilson County Schools

Wilson County Schools has a new superintendent. Sean Bulson, 42, community superintendent for Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, will take over July 1 for Larry Price as superintendent of the school system. The decision was announced Wednesday at a special Wilson County Board of Education meeting.

“It’s very exciting,” said Board chairwoman Robin Flinn.

Flinn has been involved with the search since former board chairman Marvin Sessoms signed a contract agreement in September retaining the North Carolina School Board Association’s superintendent search services at a rate of $9,500, plus additional, out-of-pocket expenses.

“It has been a long process, and a stressful process just in the fact that we wanted to make sure that we made the right decision,” Flinn said. “And we believe we did.”

“Mr. Bulson brings a passion for education, an energy that I think is just going to propel our school system even further,” she added. “We’re going in the right direction and he’s just going to help us go even further.”

Bulson, who lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Kate, and 6-year-old daughter, Emily, is currently responsible for supervising 36 elementary, middle and high schools, and serves approximately 24,000 students. He serves under Superintendent Jerry D. Weast in his current position.

As superintendent of the Wilson school district, Bulson will supervise 25 elementary, middle and high schools, and approximately 12,500 students.

“It feels outstanding,” Bulson said of Wednesday’s announcement.

“It’s hard to sit on information that’s so exciting,” he said. “It sounds like they did a pretty good job here.”

Bulson stumbled across the job posting in October. He spent the next three months preparing an application, which he submitted to the district Jan. 21.

School board members received 25 applications from the NCSBA. Bulson was one of seven selected by members to be interviewed in closed session at the Raleigh Marriott Crabtree Valley in the initial stages of the search. He made it through that stage and was interviewed a second time along with two other finalists last month at the Embassy Suites off Harrison Oaks Boulevard in Cary.

Board members didn’t bring any of the candidates to the district throughout the search. However, Bulson said he took it upon himself to visit the district a couple of times where he “mostly just drove around.” He also said he went to Parker’s once or twice. SOURCE: Wilson Times