First school board in-person meeting in year

The La Conner School Board held a special meeting Monday that lived up to its name.

It was termed “special” because it opened with a walking tour of the campus.

What was truly special came next.

The members convened their first in-person meeting in a year – since the COVID-19 pandemic forced closure of schools statewide last March and led the board to conduct its public sessions on the Zoom tele-conferencing platform.

Masked and socially distanced, board members met in the district administration building to hear updates on La Conner’s superintendent search process and special education programs.

The search timeline is rapidly shrinking. Friday is the application deadline for the superintendent position. Board members will begin reviewing those applications March 17.

Community meetings and board interviews of finalists are March 29-31. Final deliberations by the board are April 1, the framework crafted by

Northwest Leadership Associates consultants Mark Venn and Wayne Robertson.

In the meantime, board members have homework assignments.

“We need to develop questions,” member John Agen explained, “that go along with the list of skills and qualifications we’re looking for in a superintendent.”

Board president Susie Gardner Deyo stressed the importance of insightful questions designed to elicit specific and detailed responses.

“How are we going to test for these,” Deyo asked rhetorically, alluding to the attributes they seek. “How are we going to measure that?”

The questions board members create and answers they receive will tell the tale.

The board will find a successor to Whitney Meissner, who left La Conner Schools last July after three years.

Retired superintendent Rich Stewart has led the district on an interim basis the past nine months.

Stewart anticipates a strong field of candidates.

“I think Mark and Wayne have done some recruiting,” he said.

An overview of special education services by Andy Wheeler, director of special programs was also on the agenda.

Wheeler explained the goal of special education is to ensure that students eligible for services receive the instruction and assistance that best meets their individual needs while being assigned to the least restrictive learning environment.

“Our whole goal,” Wheeler said, “is to keep students in the general education classroom as much as possible.”