School Board willing to hire interim boss if needed

With superintendent Rick Jones’ last day slated for June 30, the Burlington-Edison School Board is prepared to hire an interim superintendent if a qualified candidate cannot be found soon.

On Monday, the board could have voted on a new chief, placed an interim superintendent in the district, or delayed the decision to a later date. Information from that meeting was not available at the time of publication.

But board members said they are willing to wait if the perfect candidate is not available.

At a community meeting last week, School Board member Marty Lopez said hiring a short-term chief would be “very likely” if none of the possible candidates meet the board’s expectations. Lopez was speaking for School Board President Liza Bott, whose speech was limited by a vocal cord problem. Board members held the meeting to gather input from the community on what qualities they’re looking for in the district’s next superintendent.

The new superintendent would begin July 1.

The Board was not the only group looking for answers, as community members asked what the next step will be regarding the new hire.

Board members said finding a highly qualified candidate is a difficult job since superintendents are becoming difficult to find. Lopez said the board was making use of a private consultant — John Fotheringham from Northwest Leadership Associates, an organization that specializes in filling superintendent positions in the Northwest.

Fotheringham said Thursday in an interview that many of the possible candidates for the job are locked up with other districts and unable to get out of contracts.

“When you start looking this late in the season, you just don’t have a large group of candidates,” Fotheringham said. “The prime ones have already been sucked up by other districts.”

Districts used to get between 40-50 applicants for an open superintendent position, he said.

“Now they’re lucky to get a dozen,” he said.

Residents at the meeting also expressed concern over being able to meet the candidates before a final decision was made. About a dozen residents attended the meeting, which took place in the high school cafetorium.

“Our decision is going to be based on John’s recommendation,” Lopez said. “If there was enough candidates, we’ll do that.”

Resident Veronica Gonzalez, who works as the Mount Vernon High School’s migrant advocate, said the Board should be reaching out to gather input from the Spanish speaking community since such a high percentage of Burlington-Edison students are Latino.

“We need to have a superintendent that’s culturally sensitive,” she told the Board.

Burlington-Edison teacher Kirk Hamilton said the new superintendent needs to be able to deal with the district’s projected $1 million gap in the budget. The School Board discussed the budget situation, caused mostly by increasing fuel and food costs, in late May.

“That person is going to have to be able to come out and tell the public, ‘I’m sorry, but this is what needs to happen,” Hamilton said. “That’s going to be very important — that’s pure honesty.”

School Board members have also been receiving comments through the district’s Web site. The cut off for comments online was June 4.

Jones was hired by the North Kitsap School District last month and will take over as its superintendent July 1. He has been with the Burlington-Edison School District since 1998.