How Spokane’s superintendent landed back in the Tri-Cities to lead Richland schools

For a third time in two years, the Richland school board picked a successor for retiring Superintendent Rick Schulte.

Spokane Superintendent Shelley Redinger returns to the district where she started her teaching career to take over for Schulte, who is retiring after seven years.

He planned to leave last July, but that changed after a clash between teachers and incoming Superintendent Nicole MacTavish over potential cuts to special education. The school board ended up canceling her three-year contract.

Then the school board led a search that culminated with the choice of Mark Davidson from Medicine Hat School Division in Alberta, Canada, over two other contestants from Salt Lake City and Moses Lake.

When Davidson backed out of taking the job earlier this month because of issues linked to COVID-19, the board went back to its search consultant to help find another candidate.

They scoured a list of past candidates who had submitted applications.

Redinger previously applied for the Richland opening but she wasn’t able to interview in February or March, said School Board President Rick Jansons. If she had, she would have been one of his top picks, he said.

Earlier this year, Redinger was a finalist to lead school districts in Nashville and Scottsdale, Ariz. She withdrew from consideration for the Scottsdale position saying it wasn’t good enough for her to leave Spokane, according to the Spokesman-Review.

Then in March, Nashville cut its search short after a tornado hit the city and COVID closed schools, and the board promoted the district’s interim superintendent to the top post.

Tuesday night, the Richland board announced its deal with Redinger, who starts Aug. 1.

The district is still negotiating her three-year, including her salary. Schulte’s base pay was $195,000 a year.

Returning to Richland

Redinger started her career in Richland during the early 1990s as a second-grade teacher at Jefferson Elementary, before becoming the principal at Sacajawea Elementary. She then moved to the central administrative office as director of teaching and learning for the district.

Jansons, who has been on the Richland School Board for nearly 20 years, worked with Redinger when she was in the district’s main office. He told the Herald she was always professional and able to deliver strong results.

“Shelley checks all the boxes of what our community told us they wanted in the next superintendent,” Jansons said in a school news release. “We found her to be warm and a good listener, with a track record of success in the districts she previously led. She is an innovative leader, who builds trust through authenticity, sincerity and humility.”

She worked in Richland 13 years before being hired to lead the Oregon Trail School District in Sandy, Ore., and then the Spotsylvania School District in Fredricksburg, Va.

In 2012, she become the superintendent of the Spokane School District. It is one of the largest districts in the state at 31,000 students in 34 elementary schools, six middle schools and six high schools.

“I’m not trying to leave Spokane,” she told the Herald. “It’s been eight great years, and it was a good time for my family. My son is going to be graduating high school in a year, so we looked for good places to live where my husband can find a job in engineering.”

Richland is a great place to live, she said, adding she hopes to be a stabilizing leader for the district for years to come.

Redinger led the Spokane district through some turbulent times because of the changes statewide to school funding following the statewide McCleary court decision.

The changes by the Legislature left the Spokane district with a projected $31 million budget deficit in 2019 and possible widespread layoffs.

The actual layoffs were smaller than initially announced because of a combination of new money from the state, reserve funds and teachers leaving the district. In all, the district laid off nine teachers and 67 staff members.

The problem came about because the state capped the local sales tax levy at $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed value, Redinger said. Spokane residents had supported schools through the years, so losing the revenue was a blow to the budget.

She told the Spokesman-Review her crowning achievement was getting approval for a $495 million capital bond in 2018, as well as the community’s consistent support of levies.

The school system also saw a 20 percent increase in its graduation rates during her administration.

Richland school challenges

Richland is already in the middle of a series of construction projects being funded by a $99 million bond. One of them, a new Tapteal Elementary, was stalled after a worker tested positive for COVID-19 on top of previous delays caused by the virus.

The school was expected to open this fall, but the delay pushed back the opening. The district hasn’t been able to start work on replacing Badger Elementary because the two projects are interconnected.

All of this is playing out after the state calculations found the district didn’t have enough elementary students to provide matching funds for the new school, putting plans for a new elementary in south Richland on hold.

While the new elementary is delayed, the district is eyeing building a third high school. They put together a committee earlier this year to start that planning.

And districts statewide are still figuring out how to safely reopen schools this fall amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Redinger said she is excited about returning to Richland which has about 14,000 students.

“I truly believe that Richland School District is one of the best districts in the state, if not the country,” she said in a statement from the district.

“I am excited and honored to come and be a partner in the district’s next chapter. I am here to partner and collaborate with the district’s staff and community so we continue elevating Richland to better successes together.”

She told the Herald on Wednesday she is looking forward to working with Kennewick Superintendent Traci Pierce and Pasco Superintendent Michelle Whitney.

She promised to find ways to meet with community members once she arrives, though the restrictions around the coronavirus make it harder to introduce herself to citizens in person.

“That is something that I love to do, to be out in the community,” she said. “It’s harder to do that right now, but whatever I can do, in the phase that we’re in, I want to go out and be available. .... I have a very open door policy so we can be proactive as possible.”

This story was originally published June 24, 2020 at 12:58 PM.