SEQUIM — Donna Hudson is lending a hand at the Sequim School District office for the remainder of the 2021-22 school year, shifting responsibilities from her principal position at Greywolf Elementary School.
Hudson will lead the district’s Teaching and Learning Department through the end of the academic year as a principal on special assignment, district officials said in February.
Sequim schools interim Superintendent Joan Zook said Hudson will have a variety of duties, including overseeing several district programs such as Title I, Highly Capable and McKinney-Vento, as well as curriculum adoption and review.
Complex programs
Zook said the previous superintendent, Jane Pryne, was overseeing some of the programs, but after a 10-year absence — Zook retired as Shelton School District’s superintendent in 2011 — she (Zook) doesn’t have the background to oversee the programs while managing the superintendent’s other tasks.
“There’s too much in this office to do all of that work and all of this work,” Zook said. “These (programs) are far more complex than when I left in 2011.”
While Hudson works out of the district office, Jennifer Lopez will be the acting principal at Greywolf Elementary, and Casey Lanning, formerly a music teacher at the school, will stand in as the acting assistant principal.
“I know Greywolf students and staff are in great hands with Mrs. Lopez leading our building,” Hudson said in a newsletter at Greywolf’s website on Feb. 18.
“Mr. Lanning knows many of our students and our staff, which will ease disruption for the rest of the year.”
Said Zook of Hudson: “She’s an experienced principal (and) knows her stuff.”
Zook said it will be up to the district’s new superintendent to make decisions about who will handle these roles at the start of the 2022-23 school year, starting July 1.
Superintendent talks
Sequim schools will take significant steps toward naming its new superintendent starting this week.
A community stakeholder group made up of parents, students, representatives of employee groups and other community entities interviewed candidates online March 10.
Board directors narrowed their search on Feb. 25. Following an all-day executive session meeting and interviewing five candidates via Zoom, they unanimously agreed on the three candidates and an alternate for finalist interviews, with no public discussion about the candidates.
On Saturday, board directors interviewed the candidates. They planned to make their choice for superintendent Sunday. Their selection will be only identified by a letter; the district’s new superintendent will be announced later this month after the candidate has agreed to a contract, district officials said.
________
Michael Dashiell is the editor of the Sequim Gazette of the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which also is composed of other Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News and Forks Forum. Reach him at editor@sequimgazette.com.
