Muscogee County School District hires its first police chief

The Muscogee County School Board has approved the superintendent’s recommended person to become the Muscogee County School District’s first police chief.

In a 8-0 vote during Monday night’s monthly meeting, the nine-member board confirmed Superintendent David Lewis’ choice to lead MCSD’s new agency: Grep Arp, the chief investigator for the district attorney’s office in the Appalachian Judicial Circuit for the past six years.

District 8 representative Philip Schley was absent from the meeting.

According to his resume, Arp previously was chief of the East Ellijay Police Department (2003-12), a lieutenant deputy sheriff and a school resource officer in Fannin County (1998-2003), a senior investigator for the DeKalb County Juvenile Solicitor’s Office (1995-98) and a patrol officer for the Blue Ridge Police Department (1987-88 and January 1991-June 1991).

He earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Georgia State University in 1995 and a master’s degree in public administration from Columbus State University in 2010.

“Seven or eight” candidates were interviewed for the police chief’s position out of the “17 or 18” applicants, MCSD chief human resources officer Kathy Tessin told the Ledger-Enquirer last week.

The MCSD police chief’s position has been vacant for the 10 months since the board established the police agency.

In May 2018, the board upgraded Lewis’ recommendation to establish the police agency. He had recommended boosting MCSD’s current security staff from 17 part-time officers to 10 full-time officers, including one for each high school, seven part-time officers and three additional positions. The board’s majority expanded that recommendation, calling for a full-time officer at each middle school. So the board approved adding $1,692,467, including $892,467 in start-up costs, to MCSD’s current $2,133,871 budget for security.

But no officers have been hired because the department’s police chief hadn’t been hired, Tessin said.

District 6 representative Mark Cantrell was the only board member to comment about the recommendation during last week’s work session. He expressed concern about the population of Ellijay (about 1,700 and East Ellijay about 570 in 2017, compared to 31,859 students in MCSD as of October 2018). The police department he would lead for MCSD, Lewis said, is “commensurate” with the department he led for East Ellijay, “roughly the same number of officers, 18 or 20.”

Cantrell also said he is disappointed Lewis selected someone who isn’t from Columbus. Lewis reminded Cantrell that the board directed him to seek someone who has experience similar to what this job requires.

Monday night, Cantrell again was the only board member to speak about the police chief agenda item during the meeting. This time, however, he voiced support for Lewis’ recommendation. Although he reiterated his preference for hiring someone from Columbus, he said Arp has “high qualifications.”

“Three or four” of the candidates Lewis interviewed were local applicants, he told the Ledger-Enquirer after Monday night’s meeting.

Asked why he chose Arp, Lewis said, “I went through all the background checks, looked at all the references. That plays into the decision but also the fact that he was the one who had the requisite (police chief) experience that the board had charged me with, finding someone who had actually held the position.”

No local candidate fit that description, Lewis said.

MCSD security director Scott Thomann, who had advocated and presented to the board the plan to establish the district’s police agency, was interviewed for the police chief’s position, Lewis acknowledged. Thomann will continue in his current position through the end of the fiscal year, June 30. Then that position will be eliminated in favor of the police chief’s position.

“He’ll be considered for any other position for which he is certified and qualified,” Lewis said. “There is command staffing to be considered from this point forward, as well as the officer positions.”

During his acceptance speech to the board, Arp thanked his wife for encouraging him to apply. He told the Ledger-Enquirer that he was reluctant because he was worried about uprooting his family, which includes adult and school-age children.

Arp sought the position, he said, because “I have a passion for children. When I was working for the Fannin County Sheriff’s Office as a school resource officer, that was probably one of the most rewarding times in my life. I believe that every child deserves the right to achieve their education in the safest and most secure environment possible. And I’m going to work diligently to make sure that occurs here.”

Asked for his reaction to concern about him not being from Columbus and that his experience as a police chief was in a small town compared to a much larger school district, Arp said, “Leadership is leadership. You either have it or you don’t. Leading 10 men and leading 21 men and women is not that great a leap.”

Arp added, “I had a proven record in East Ellijay. When I took over the East Ellijay Police Department, they were mired in controversy: They had a chief that had been arrested; the mayor had been indicted; and we had to completely rebuild that department and work to gain the community’s trust. So I know from previous experience what’s required, and this is just on a larger scale. So I’m looking forward to it, and I think we can build a department that everyone is proud of and is glad they’re in place.”

Principal hired

In other action during Monday night’s meeting, the board unanimously approved the promotion of Karprice Bentley-Brown from assistant principal to principal of Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School.

Nancy Johnson, retired principal of Wynnton Arts Academy, has been MLK’s temporary principal since Barbara Weaver left in November for medical reasons after working there for three years, Tessin told the Ledger-Enquirer last week. No successor for Bentley-Brown as MLK’s assistant principal has been recommended yet.

Bentley-Brown has been MLK’s assistant principal since August 2017. According to her resume, she previously was an MCSD academic coach (2014-17), fourth-grade teacher at North Columbus Elementary (August 2014-October 2014), academic coach at Wesley Heights Elementary (January 2013-August 2014) and fifth-grade teacher at Wesley Heights (2009-2013).

She earned a specialist’s degree in educational leadership from Columbus State University in 2016, a specialist’s degree in teacher leadership from Walden University in 2012, a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Phoenix in 2010 and a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from CSU in 2008.

During the work session, Lewis told the board that Bentley-Brown received “rave reviews” from Johnson, the staff and visiting state education officials for her performance as MLK’s assistant principal. He thanked Johnson for doing a “tremendous job” filling in as principal.