EV teachers ask board for more time to find leader

East Valley teachers want more time to find a new leader.

At a community meeting Tuesday night, East Valley Education Association president Leslee McLachlan said teachers want the school board to wait before going on a search for a new superintendent.

“We want to be able to draw from the best pool of candidates,” McLachlan said.

The board is in the process of looking for a new superintendent. The district is being led by Interim Superintendent Christine Burgess, who filled the post left vacant this spring by Michael Jones.

The district is holding a series of meetings for staff and the community to express what they think is important for the board to consider in the selection of the next superintendent. The meetings are being led by Dennis Ray, a consultant hired by the district to conduct the search. Ray is the president of Northwest Leadership Associates based in Liberty Lake.

A handful of community members, including McLachlan who has been an East Valley resident most of her life and a teacher in the district since 1974, attended the meeting Tuesday night.

McLachlan said teachers were told in May that the best time to do a search was in the spring, when superintendents typically would be looking. The concern is that board members changed the timeline for the search after learning that two seats on the board were being contested in the upcoming elections, McLachlan said.

Another seat, currently held by board member Sue Wentz who decided not to seek another term, will be filled by Kerri Lunstroth, the only candidate to seek election to the seat.

“We would rather that the people that make the decision (for a new superintendent), are the people that live with the decision,” McLachlan said.

At the last board meeting the district voted to begin the search this fall instead of in the spring. The change in the timeline was due in part to the upcoming spring maintenance and operations levy.

“Our main concern is the levy issue,” said board member Mike King. “We want to be able to devote as much time to both issues as we can.”

Aside from concerns over the timing of the search, McLachlan said teachers would also like to see a superintendent that communicates effectively with staff and the community.

While administration is generally good about working with staff and the community, “we have a lot of decisions that are made from the top down,” McLachlan said. “It makes you feel like you’re not part of the decision making.”

Others at the meeting said they would like to see a superintendent stick around for a while. Superintendent contracts are generally three years, though the tenure for superintendents for a district the size of East Valley is six to seven years, Ray said. Jones was at East Valley for four years.

Other possible qualifications suggested include a superintendent with experience working as a teacher, and one who had worked extensively with budgets.

The group also discussed strengths and challenges in the district, which included declining enrollment and low-staff morale in tight-budget times. Highlights included a supportive staff and academic rigor.

“I think the academic program has become very well organized,” said Tim Christensen, an East Valley parent. “I couldn’t have said that five years ago.”

The superintendent position will be open until November, and the board hopes to make a selection sometime in December. Additional meetings will be held with the community and staff as the search progresses, and the candidate field is whittled down.

The district will compile the list of qualifications gathered at recent meetings to be used in a brochure to attract candidates to the job, Ray said.

“We want to provide enough information that a potential candidate could learn about the positions to decide whether they want to pursue it in depth,” Ray said.