District makes superintendent choice official

Hazel Bauman will lead the Coeur d’Alene School District beginning July 1, 2008, under a plan approved by the school board Tuesday.

The board unanimously approved Bauman’s promotion and called for a two-year contract. Superintendent Harry Amend announced his retirement publicly last week at the district’s annual welcome back meeting and introduced Bauman, the district’s assistant superintendent, as his replacement.

Roger Snyder, a parent and former member of the district’s long-range planning committee, chastised the board for making the decision privately.

“The decision was made in executive session behind closed doors without any visible public comment,” Snyder said during the meeting’s public comment time. The district hired a consultant to help with the search that resulted in Amend’s hire in 2002 – a search that included public meetings with finalists.

“The best allies our educators have are well-informed and involved patrons,” Snyder said. “I’m left puzzled as to why a good process was abandoned.”

Bauman was the other finalist for the superintendent’s position in 2002.

“She has grown tremendously in those five years,” said board member Vern Newby. “She has also been selected several times to run other districts, and we’ve been able to retain her.”

With a qualified candidate already available, the search process – which is expensive and time-consuming – wasn’t necessary, board chairwoman Edie Brooks said.

“We could go through the process we did with Superintendent Amend, except we aren’t looking to the outside,” Brooks said. “It’s a little bit different. We feel that we (already) have an exemplary individual to fill the position.”

The board spent several hours in executive session talking about how to proceed after Amend told them he planned to retire, district attorney Charlie Dodson said last week, but no vote was taken until Tuesday’s meeting.

Bauman is considered an expert on curriculum issues, Amend said.

With more emphasis on testing and standards at the national level, such as the requirement of the federal No Child Left Behind Act that all students be proficient by 2014, her knowledge will be invaluable, Amend said.

More than 1,000 district employees attended the meeting in which Bauman’s promotion was announced. The response was overwhelmingly positive, Amend said.

“Hazel received a standing ovation from over 1,000 employees that day,” Amend said.

Not promoting her “would devalue the (morale) of the staff out there,” Newby said.

Bauman has been Coeur d’Alene’s assistant superintendent for six years and previously served as director of elementary education and curriculum director.

Before that, she was an assistant director at the University of Idaho and held positions in special education.