White Salmon — The search for the next White Salmon Valley School District superintendent has commenced, according to information given at the March 25 school board meeting.
The incoming superintendent will replace Dr. Jerry Lewis, who, after serving as the district’s top administrator for 12 years, announced his intention to retire, effective June 30.
NW Leadership Associates, the consulting group hired by the school board to assist the district with the search, presented their latest findings to the board at last week’s meeting and outlined a proposed interview schedule.
Roger Rada, a consultant with NW Leadership Associates, reported that the consulting group, which includes Rada and his wife, Glenys Hill, has contacted 20 potential candidates so far.
“Of those right now, seven have actually asked for application forms,” said Rada. “We don’t send out applications unless they ask for one, so we know who’s kind of in the mix- who’s serious about the job.”
The group is running a national search and have identified potential candidates from as far as South Carolina, Rada said, with three of the potential candidates hailing from out-of-state. Three potential candidates are superintendents, eleven are “assistant superintendents or district office- types", and six are building principals, said Rada.
“That’s probably pretty typical, given the size of (White Salmon Valley School District),” said Rada.
Rada said, in response to a question posed by Board member Laurie Stanton, 12 people reached out to the recruiting group and others were potential candidates that the group scoped out.
Interview process
The school board and the consultant group set a date of April 22 to invite candidates to perform the interviews and attend forums intended as an avenue to gather input from students, parents, teachers, staff and community members.
“We want each of the candidates to visit each of the schools, and have the building administrators get a chance to meet those people particularly, and for the candidates to get a sense of the district and what the buildings are like,” said Rada.
Rada said they are planning to host two forums- a student-led forum, a community forum, and also are planning to host an observer panel to listen in to the interviews. Each group will have the opportunity to rank candidates and provide input to the board.
The community- and student-led forums will last a half-hour and will give the public and students a chance to provide input. The observer panel would be made up of around 20 teachers, administrators, community leaders, staff members, and people who are representative of the demographic make-up of the district, said Rada.
With the COVID-19 situation uncertain, it remains to be determined whether the observer panel will be in-person, said Rada. “We want to make sure the representative sample gets their input,” said Rada. “We can work on that and what that might look like,” said Rada.
Public Comment
Ubaldo Hernández, a community organizer and White Salmon resident, voiced his concerns that the school board is not creating an environment that makes Latino families comfortable with participating in the superintendent search, based on his experience participating in the earlier forum to help select the consulting group.
“It was really frustrating, being one of the two Latinos participating in this forum, arguing with … two teachers and a worker, that they were on the forum, always blaming on the youth for not wanting to be in the school, blaming on the Latino families for not wanting to participate, blaming to the Latino families because they were expecting the teachers to take the responsibility of educating the Latino kids’ families,” said Hernández.
“This type of action really, instead of bringing the community and wanting to participate, they are pushing the community away,” said Hernández. “I want to bring this to your attention because you invite members of the community to participate and give their point-of-view of what their experience is of their school district, and you have workers that they are contesting their point-of-view in those meetings.
"Instead of accepting other points-of-view, accepting what the community feels like, it feels like every time you go there, you find people that are going to fight against you," said Hernández. “It doesn’t allow the Latino community to participate.”
Hernández said he believes the board has a lack of understanding of how to approach the Latino community and suggested that members take diversity training “to build an understanding of how to deal with our Latino community.”
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