The Liberty County Board of Education has selected Dr. Franklin D. Perry to be the interim superintendent.

Perry was approved in a 5-0 vote during a special called meeting Friday. Board members Marcus Scott IV and Marcia Anderson were not in attendance.

Perry will start June 1.

According to his resume Perry's work experience includes being superintendent of Sumter County Public Schools from 2002 to 2005, assistant superintendent for Bibb County Public Schools from 2005 to 2006 and superintendent of Twiggs County Public Schools from 2006 to 2009. Since then he has been a consultant and assistant principal in Greene County schools for two years, as well as a consultant in Vienna and Conyers, Ga.

When asked why the board selected Perry, board member Dr. Yvette Keel said Perry's interview was very "dynamic."

"He was very knowledgeable," Keel said. "He knew not just charter schools but charter system and it's different. He was very impressive in talking about what his work day will be like and the expectations he sets for himself. He talked to us about what he would do in the first 30 days as interim. He had it all mapped out, people he would meet and things to look at within the system itself. He was the shining one of the top three candidates."

Concerns have been raised over Perry being fired as superintendent from Twiggs County.

Keel said she's gotten phone calls about it.

"I tell people, in my classes for educational leadership we were told if you aspire to be a superintendent you better like to move," Keel said. "You are not going to last longer than three years because you are going to make somebody on the board mad."

Twiggs County school board members didn't say much on the reason for Perry's firing, according to a 2009 article by the Telegraph newspaper in Macon.

"When you leave a superintendent job, you either retire because you know they're going to get rid of you or you're fired. They may allow you to resign or not ask for another contract, but the reality is the majority of superintendents in our world of education, they are not asked back," Keel said. "There are some that their county keeps them forever, but the majority, if you do your research, the majority of superintendents don't last three years. So it doesn't bother me when they say he was fired. They all get fired. And we're told that."

Keel thinks the community will like Perry and he will be very active locally.