After months of searching, the Merrillville School Board has named an administrator in its own backyard as the district’s next superintendent.
On Friday, the Merrillville Community School Corp. announced Assistant Superintendent Dexter Suggs will be its next superintendent, succeeding Nick Brown who is retiring.
School Board President Judy Dunlap said Friday the board will vote on Suggs’ three-year contract at 4:30 p.m. meeting July 5.
Suggs has served as assistant superintendent since 2019.
“He is innovative, creative, and will bring a wealth of experience and leadership to the role of superintendent,” Dunlap said.
The proposed contract includes an annual salary of $187,000. If the school board provides teachers raises, the superintendent would receive the same percentage increase.
The board also agreed to pay $9,000 in a lump sum for the business use of a personal automobile.
Suggs came to Merrillville after serving as an associate faculty member for the IUPUI School of Education.
Previously, he was an administrator for the MSD Wayne Township. He was also chief of staff and chief information officer for the Indianapolis Public Schools.
He left Indianapolis in 2013 after accepting a post as superintendent in Little Rock, Ark., where a blogger accused him of plagiarizing his doctoral dissertation.
In 2015, Indiana Wesleyan rescinded Suggs’ doctorate degree awarded in 2009 after an investigation determined the alleged plagiarism was unintended.
Suggs denied the plagiarism complaint and resigned in 2015. When he arrived in Little Rock in 2013, Suggs said 12 of Little Rock’s 48 schools were failing and only six were low-performing when he left.
In 2019, Suggs said he was upfront about the incident and included it in his resume cover letters. “It’s part of what happened,” he said.
Suggs received his doctorate in education from Indiana State University in 2018.
Merrillville officials said they knew about the incident when hiring Suggs in 2019.
Brown said Suggs was vetted and came “well respected for his accomplishments and abilities.”
Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
