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Christian County Library plans for executive director search

The Nixa Branch of the Christian County Library building, previously leased, now owned by the Library district.
Christian County Library District
The Nixa Branch of the Christian County Library .

In the last year, the library district has seen the resignation of one board president and its previous executive director, as the board and district face ongoing public calls for book labeling and removal.

During a special meeting Friday, January 24, the Christian County Library’s Board of Trustees continued preparing the search for a new executive director for the four-branch library district.

The board previously opted not to seek the help of an outside recruiting agency and to develop a new job description for the role. Friday’s meeting was an extended editing session to develop the description.

Board members, with assistance from library staff, clarified legal obligations, including ADA requirements and Missouri statutes that govern library directors. They also considered key responsibilities, expectations and qualifications, and, throughout the discussion, laid out a vision for the new director and their working relationship with the board.

Early in the discussion, Trustee Janis Hagen prompted the board to rethink a passage that seemed to indicate the new hire would be expected to seek board approval before hiring and firing certain staff. The board as a whole conceded that this was outside of their powers as defined by statute. The language was rewritten, but Trustee John Garrity emphasized the intentions underlying the initial wording

"Here’s the shift as I see it,” Garrity explained. “Rhe (Christian County) commissioners and the board, historically, were doing a lot more rubber stamping then we’re going to do. We’re not going to do that. We’re going to get involved. We’re going to be informed. We’re going to help you guys address the needs in the community. We’re not going to just not comment. We’re not going to not listen to them (the community).”

Trustees spent much of the last half of the meeting discussing degree and library experience requirements. Trustee Garrity and Trustees Mary Hernandez de Carl and Echo Schneider de-emphasized the importance of the library specific master's degree and library experience and pointed towards the potential aptitude of a business or nonprofit leader to take the job. At one point Trustee Garrity said the district does not “need another librarian.”

"The skill set that is sorely needed here is operational, people management, project management, budget; financial responsibilities.” Garrity said. “They don’t need to know how to shelve books. They need to know how to run our programs, how to oversee the people that run our programs, that’s what we need.”

The board ultimately made a relevant master's degree a preference, citing an MBA or master's in education or nonprofit management as potentially relevant non-library degrees. They reduced the required library experience to five years, maintaining the requirement that a candidate have a full 10 years of relevant experience.

Near closing, Trustee Garrity also asked the library’s Director of Finance and Business Operations Mary Thompson to bring a report to the board on potentially raising the position’s base salary. He said, per his research, the range ought to be between $90,000 and $130,000.

Former Executive Director Renee Brumett was initially hired at an annual salary of $72,800.

The board is not opting to make changes to the current starting salary as of yet. Changes to the job requirements will have to be approved at the next regular board meeting session. The board voted to send the job description along preemptively for review and approval from the district’s lawyer. They plan to continue planning for the job search at a yet to be scheduled special meeting. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held February 25.

Corrected: January 27, 2025 at 3:21 PM CST
A previous version of this story quoted Trustee Garrity as saying "90 to 120 thousand". It has been corrected to "90 to 130 thousand."