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New principals chosen for Ferris, Rogers, Shadle Park and Lewis and Clark high schools

Corley
Corley
By Jim Allen jima@spokesman.com

Spokane Public Schools announced Friday the hiring of four new high school principals, all of whom have administrative experience in the district.

They include Ivan Corley at Lewis and Clark, John O’Dell at Ferris, Chris Dunn at Shadle Park and John Hammil at Rogers.

Corley has been the principal at Grant Elementary School since fall 2015.

Prior to that, he was an assistant principal at Rogers for four years, following teaching and administrative experience at Shadle Park, where he also taught English from 1992-2006.

Corley replaces Marybeth Smith, who will oversee curriculum at the district’s central office.

O’Dell, the principal at Chase Middle School since 2017, will replace the retiring Ken Schutz at Ferris.

The move is a homecoming of sorts for O’Dell, who is a former teacher and administrator at the school. Prior to that, O’Dell was a teacher at Chase.

Dunn began his teaching career at Riverside in 2012, then taught mathematics at Rogers for four years. He served as an assistant principal at Shadle Park for three years before taking a similar role back at Rogers this year.

Dunn replaces Julie Lee, who is retiring.

Another Rogers assistant principal, Hammil, will move up to replace Lori Wyborney, who will become a school director for all schools feeding into Rogers.

Hammil is a former administrator at Garry Middle School.

The changes are effective at the end of the school year. This means for the first time in at least a decade, there will be no women leading any of the district’s five high schools.

Friday’s announcement caps a series of interviews that included meetings between finalists, staff and students, Superintendent Adam Swinyard said.

Following spring break, the district will fill vacant positions at Sacajawea and Chase middle schools, Swinyard said.

In another move, Shawn Jordan, currently the district’s director of secondary schools, will become chief operations officer following the retirement of associate superintendent Mark Anderson.