Supt. hired for Glenwood center

The troubled Glenwood Resource Center will soon be under new leadership.

R. Scot Booth has been hired as the next superintendent of the center, said Charles Krogmeier, director of the Iowa Department of Human Services.

Booth will begin work at the care center on Oct. 26. He will earn an annual salary of $117,000.

The Glenwood Resource Center serves more than 300 individuals with developmental disabilities.

The Iowa facility has been under federal scrutiny since a 2004 court order. The court mandated improvements in the standards of care at both Glenwood and its sister facility, Woodward Resource Center.

Neither center was in compliance with the court order by the original 2008 deadline, which was extended to 2010.

In April, the U.S. Department of Justice said Woodward was in compliance. Glenwood has made improvements, investigators said, but still does not offer adequate standards of care.

The Wednesday announcement of new leadership at Glenwood came two weeks after Gov. Chet Culver disclosed results of an independent review of the facility. That review was ordered after 12 deaths occurred at the center over the course of a year.

The review recommended improved staff training and permanent leadership.

One group critical of the Glenwood Resource Center has said the only suitable option is closing the facility.

Booth should begin moving people from Glenwood into community-based services as soon as possible, said Sylvia Piper, executive director of Iowa Protection and Advocacy Services Inc., a federally funded advocacy program for the rights of people with disabilities.

“We continue to call upon the state to close this facility and trust that (Booth) will be taking steps in that direction,” Piper said.

Kelly Brodie, the current interim superintendent, was appointed after the former leader retired in 2008.

Since 2007, Booth has been executive director of Los Lunas Community Program, a center serving 120 people with behavioral and medical needs in Los Lunas, N.M.

He has been a longtime consultant to the Columbus Organization, a group that assists states in meeting federal care standards.

From 1997 to 2004, Booth was executive director of the Alternative Program of Murfreesboro, Tenn. That agency provides case management to about 650 people.