Kitsap Education

The new Everett superintendent, who comes to the district from Port Angeles, is taking a pay cut to help with the budget problems.  Read this story to find out more.  Note particularly the list of other salaries at the bottom of the story.

The Bremerton School Board planned to go into closed session last night to talk about candidates for interim superintendent, but the board cancelled that part of the meeting. The next scheduled time to talk about an interim is March 5 – a regularly scheduled board meeting.

Denise Zaske announced at the meeting last night that the school district is now conducting an online survey to find out what folks in Bremerton want in their superintendent. You can reach the survey here and find other information about the search, including a timeline and the work of a large community task force that outlined the characteristics Bremerton wants in a new superintendent.

The district’s assessment director, Bob Hamilton, provided some levity at last night’s meeting.

Before launching into a long presentation about a survey of parents, teachers and students’ perceptions of the district, Hamilton informed the board: “I have a shoe full of milk.”

Hamilton got to play lunch monitor at View Ridge Elementary Thursday. It’s always fun, he said, to be out in the district’s schools. I suppose it’s especially interesting for Hamilton, who spends large blocks of time in front of a computer crunching numbers. Unless you’re working the lunch room and a kindergartener has trouble keeping control of a milk carton.

As the Bremerton School Board embarks on the search to find someone to replace Bette Hyde, members are considering a lot of factors. The board hired a search consultant to help find good candidates. The board convened a task force of community  members and staff to define the characteristics needed in a new superintendent. The board is thinking about the new superintendent’s salary and benefits package, especially in light of the budget deficit facing the school district.

And probably as much as they would like to NOT think about it, the board is mulling its own reputation. The behavior of board members and the board as a whole over the past eights months or so hasn’t been stellar. They’ve admitted as much. The Sun has written plenty of stories documenting the troubles.

“We as a board have a reputation problem. We as a community have  reputation problem,” said board member DeWayne Boyd during a special meeting Feb. 13.

Certainly Bremerton has much to be proud of. The district is known across the state, and even nationally in education circles, as a haven for early childhood education. The district has done – no one can dispute this – a stellar job at putting into practice many of the strategies known to get disadvantaged kids reading. Teachers from other districts in Washington come to Bremerton on a regular basis to learn how to better their early childhood instruction. That part of the district’s reputation is solidly intact and helpful to its need to attract a new strong, smart leader.

 But what about the messy part? Will those strong candidates who could continue Bremerton’s success shy away?

Members of the Bremerton School Board did not choose a consultant to help them with their superintendent search today as planned. They had a few questions after four hours of interviews. So, they will meet again Friday at 5:30 at the district offices, 134 N Marion Ave.

They interviewed four candidates over four hours this afternoon. Richard Smith, a professor at Seattle Pacific University who does search consulting too, was first. Then came John Fotheringham of Northwest Leadership Associates. He’s a retired superintendent, as are his partners in NWL. After that was Mike Boring and Al Cohen from McPherson & Jacobson, a national recruiting firm based in Omaha and then folks from Principled Leadership Associates.

At the end of the day the board members needed answers to two questions: What exactly is Northwest Associates’ fee? What timeline do the folks at McPherson & Jacobson want to follow?

Denise Zaske, the district’s human resources director, called the people from those firms with questions but they were unreachable Thursday afternoon.

The Bremerton School Board will have a busy afternoon tomorrow (Thursday, the 12th) as they interview superintendent search consultants and then go into executive session to talk about naming an interim superintendent. The district needs an interim as Bette Hyde’s new job with the state begins April 15. Hyde was originally hired to serve as the district’s interim until the end of this school year.

The board will begin meeting at 12:30 at the district offices, 134 N Marion Ave. Looks like the search consultants will be interviewed first and executive session will follow.