Big response to schools chief job opening

The headhunting firm hired by La Conner School District to find a permanent superintendent had sent out 52 applications to people interested in the job as of Monday.

Mark Venn and Wayne Robertson of Northwest Lead-ership Associates told the school board that four candidates have already completed applications for a job opening that doesn’t close for another two weeks.

Venn said that the firm expects to have a panel of about 30 by the Jan. 23 application deadline. Typically, he said, there will be a flurry of applicants at the last minute.

The response for La Conner is very strong, he said, because “this district is highly thought of.”

People interested in the job include current school superintendents and administrators from within Washington and out of state from as far away as New Hampshire.

Still, there is one aspect that the search firm finds troubling — community input from La Conner residents has been weak. Only 63 people filled out a survey that is on the La Conner School District website seeking response from residents on what they would like to see in a new superintendent.

“We really want to hear from the community,” said board member Kate Szurek.

The survey is on the top of the page at http://lcsd.wednet.edu/, and people can even fill it out anonymously if they want to.

The board plans to be able to offer the best applicant a contract on Feb. 10 and finalize the hire at its Feb. 27 board meeting.

Before the final decision is made, the search firm will present six semi-finalists for preliminary interviews, which will be open to the public and held Feb. 4.

From there, the board will decide on three finalists, and each one will spend a day in the district, which will include a public forum on Feb. 7, 8 and 9, with one candidate per day.

Once the selection is made, the new Superintendent will take over on July 1.

Right now, Peg Seeling is the interim superintendent, and she plans to retire July 1. Seeling stepped into the job after Tim Bruce left in July to take a teaching position at Western Washington University.