SEQUIM — The Sequim School Board has interviewed the two finalists for interim superintendent and is expected to make a decision this week about who will replace current Superintendent Gary Neal.
Board members interviewed the candidates, former Port Angeles Superintendent Jane Pryne and current Milton-Freewater (Ore.) Superintendent Rob Clark — who once served as the Quilcene School District superintendent — in a public meeting at the Sequim High School Library on Monday and were meeting again Tuesday night in executive session to consider their choice. The results of that meeting were not available before the deadline for this edition of the Peninsula Daily News.
Pryne, who interviewed by Skype because she is vacationing in Sweden, served as superintendent in Port Angeles from 2009 to 2014.
She was a district superintendent in Arizona prior to her time in Port Angeles, and served as an associate clinical professor for Northern Arizona University immediately before coming to Washington state.
Clark has worked as superintendent of the Milton-Freewater School District, just south of Walla Walla across the Washington-Oregon state line, since 2013.
He also has served as a superintendent in several Washington state school districts, including the Quilcene School District, as well as the Cascade School District in Leavenworth and the Rearden-Edwall and Washtucna school districts in Eastern Washington.
Each candidate interviewed with the board for about 40 minutes, and while public comments were not accepted during the regular board meeting following the interviews, the board offered and accepted comment cards and candidate preferences.
Those cards were reviewed by the board in an executive session after the board meeting.
Question-and-answer
Pryne spoke of her love of education administration and district leadership. She said she would focus heavily on the district’s school improvement plans as a point of her initial involvement and direction over the summer if she is selected as the district’s interim superintendent.
Clark said that if hired, his early focus would include budgetary balancing and getting ready to pass a bond issue in the spring.
He said Milton-Freewater hadn’t passed a school bond since 1982, but thanks to groundwork he had laid during an elementary school reorganization early in his tenure and a long series of public meetings, the community passed a bond to build a new school building with 81 percent approval.
The biggest difference between the two candidates, though, seemed to be in their interpretation of the role of an interim superintendent.
Pryne said that an interim had to “maintain the status quo” and that they were to “help navigate the transition phase to a permanent superintendent, not be an agent of change.”
She also said that she would rather continue and complete work that’s already in progress at the district level rather than try to make substantive changes.
Clark indicated that he wanted to “hit the ground running” and start working on improving the district.
He told the board that it’s vital for an interim to “get the lay of the land and identify the tasks that need to get done,” mentioning the bond issues and “lingering personnel issues” in the district.
He emphasized that he would be in each of the school buildings regularly to work with administration and staff to understand what they need and help guide changes to improve the education experience for the students.
For more information, call the Sequim School District at 360-582-3260 or visit www.sequimschools.org.
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Conor Dowley is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at cdowley@sequimgazette.com.
