Mansour Eid steps into role as temporary superintendent for SBCSC

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- At Wednesday evening’s South Bend Community School Corporation (SBCSC) board meeting, the trustees passed a vote 6-0-1 abstained, naming Mansour Eid as the interim superintendent.

“If life has taught me anything in administration… anytime you make a decision, you either win half the people or you lose them. You never are gonna make everybody happy. So, you make the decision in good faith and what’s good for the kids. If that’s what you’re doing, you don’t worry about anything,” said Eid.

At the start of the meeting, President Jeanette McCullough informed the public Dr. Todd Cummings will no longer be the superintendent of SBCSC after reaching a deal with the board.

Wednesday’s meeting followed an emergency meeting on Feb. 14 to discuss whether to put Dr. Cummings on administrative leave after South Bend Schools stayed open through the icy conditions on February 6th and a student had to go to the hospital after falling on the sidewalk and breaking their wrist.

However, the Valentine’s Day meeting was abruptly postponed by the school board's attorney, Pete Agostino, without explanation.

In between the two meetings, a deal was made with the board to put Dr. Cummings on paid administrative leave until he resigns at the end of June, so he was not in attendance as the board selected a temporary replacement.

There were three candidates up for consideration including Eid. The other two were former head of the South Bend Empowerment Zone and current Assistant Superintendent of Student Management, Davion Lewis, and current SBCSC Deputy Superintendent, Sarita Stevens.

During the meeting, trustee Marcus Ellison did try to automatically elect Stevens by passing a motion to table the decision on the temporary superintendent, but that motion failed.

The motion to appoint Eid came from Trustee William (Bill) Sniadecki since Eid received the most support from the public. That vote passed 6-0-1, with Ellison choosing to abstain.

With Eid only stepping in as the acting superintendent, the question still remains of who will take the permanent position.

“If July 1st comes around and I enjoy it, I have moved the needle and the board thinks that I’m doing well, we could discuss that. July 1st comes around and I look at things and say well maybe it’s not for me, then I can always pull back until they find somebody,” said Eid.

Eid said he was told if he was elected, his new job would start the next day. That means during the next board meeting on Mon. March 3rd at the Brown Administration Building, it will be Eid in the seat of superintendent.