Kennewick abandons hiring a deputy school superintendent for now. What happens next?
The Kennewick School Board has decided to scrap its plan to hire a deputy-successor superintendent this summer who would eventually replace outgoing Superintendent Traci Pierce.
It’s a substantial strategic pivot for the five-member school board, which needs to find a new superintendent before Pierce retires in June 2025.
And the board decided it will hire one “associate superintendent of operations” to fill two of its other cabinet-level vacancies.
The board said this week it will wait until next school year to resume the process of searching for a permanent superintendent. Instead of coming onboard early, the new superintendent will be hired right as Pierce leaves.
The decision falls on the heels of a Wednesday night board meeting where the board initially announced plans to emerge from a closed-door executive session with a list of finalists who would be publicly interviewed on March 20-21.
But no decision was made to narrow the field, according to a Thursday update from the district. The interview dates have also been canceled, district communications and public relations director Robyn Chastain told the Tri-City Herald.
Board President Gabe Galbraith declined to explain why they have changed their plan, but said the board felt this was the “best course moving forward” at this point in time.
It’s unclear if the board decided to save money by not hiring someone to learn on the job before replacing Pierce or if the district failed at this time to get enough quality candidates for the position.
The board announced that it has decided to focus on filling another high-level position first.
The district also said it will hire an associate superintendent of operations by July 1. That person will replace Doug Christensen, the former associate superintendent of human resources, who left in December, and Vic Roberts, executive director of the district’s business operations, who is retiring this summer.
Hiring challenges
Last month, Bill Jordan with Northwest Leadership Associates, the contractor that oversaw Kennewick’s recruitment for a deputy-successor superintendent, said they had heard from at least 20 interested candidates but had received back only one complete application.
“The interest level has been a little slow, not as much as I would anticipate for the significance of the position,” he told the board.
Superintendent positions at mid-sized districts like Kennewick are hard to fill, Jordan said, especially since many newer and inexperienced candidates tend to start out at smaller districts.
“We used to get 20, 30 applicants for a superintendent position and that’s just not happening like that,” Jordan said. “This is a big step. This is a big responsibility here in a big district.”
Kennewick is the Tri-Cities largest school district, with more than 19,000 students enrolled and employing more than 2,000 workers in the past.
Kennewick’s next superintendent will earn a base salary of $187,000 to $210,000, depending on experience, and must have an active teaching certificate.
Last year’s announcement that three of its top administrators would be leaving was a big shakeup to the school district and marked an era of heavy transition.
The departures also come at a time when the district is facing substantial issues with its revenue, which were first brought on by the COVID pandemic and its associated enrollment declines and continued later as voters rejected two initial levy measures leaving the district without local funding for a year.
The board will continue to work with Northwest Leadership Associates and pick back up on the superintendent search next school year.
