At a special called meeting held Monday, April 28, the Eureka Springs School Board approved the hiring of Trina Bonham to lead the middle school starting next school year.

Bonham will replace Caen Dowell ,who is moving up to lead the high school next year. Bonham is originally from Carroll County, graduating from Green Forest High School, superintendent Bryan Pruitt said.

“She’s been out in Colorado and Texas as a principal and I think she’s got like 14 years experience as a principal and 20-something years as an educator,” Pruitt said. “She has been at some high-poverty, low-achievement schools out there out west and went in and fixed those districts … come in and help with their school improvements.

“She just has a lot of experience and we’re excited about getting her here.”

Bonham moved back to Carroll County in January and currently works from the Bailey Education Group.

Pruitt said the position had 20 applicants, seven of whom were invited to come tour the campus before having interviews.

“They toured the middle school, kind of getting a feeling for the building,” he said. “We did a little bit of unconventional there where we brought them in and Mr. Dowell and I took them on a tour, let them see some of the things that were going on there. Then we waited a week and brought them in for an interview.”

It was important to get the hire finalized before the next regular board meeting, leading to calling the special meeting, Pruitt said.

“You know, this time of the year, [candidates] have a lot of other opportunities, so we just needed to move on that pretty quick,” he said.