Touchet superintendent community forum slated for June 2

Touchet community members are invited to ask questions of the two finalists for the school district superintendent position during a community forum on Tuesday, June 2.

The finalists are Kris Duncan and Tim Dickey, two of four initial candidates that were interviewed by the school board on Tuesday, May 26. They will be available to meet community members from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday in the school library, 90 Champion St.

Duncan is currently the principal at Pioneer Middle School in Walla Walla. She has worked in education for 26 years, starting out as a teacher in Columbia School District in Burbank. She taught high school English, served as assistant principal at Davis Elementary School in College Place for two years and is now in her ninth year at Pioneer.

During her initial interview with the school board, Duncan said the core values she would bring to the district include high expectations and love for students.

"I think that education is the pathway to any future that a student would select for themselves," Duncan said. "And it's my job and the role of the teachers in a building to set very high expectations for students, but also give them the support to achieve those expectations, to show them that education opens doors, and when we work hard and we do our best, those doors just continue to open and provide more opportunities."

The school board also asked candidates how they would support agriculture and FFA programs, which are especially meaningful to Touchet families and students. Duncan, who participated in FFA as a student, said she'd want to have students involved in decision-making and make sure those programs have the best teachers possible.

"Up until about four years ago, Pioneer didn't have much of a tennis program. There were maybe eight or 10 kids participating in tennis," Duncan said. "And then one of my teachers decided to become the tennis coach, and he is such a dynamic, exciting teacher. The kids just love being around him. Now we have 50 kids participating in tennis and we don't have enough room on the courts."

Meanwhile Dickey, who is currently an instructional coach in Liberty Elementary School District in Arizona, attended Touchet High School and graduated from there in 2000. After college, he started teaching fifth grade in Arizona. He went on to work as a dean of students, an assistant principal and then as a principal. He later stepped down and became an instructional coach to have more time for his family when he had small children.

If hired as superintendent, Dickey said the most important value he could bring to the district is trust.

"Inevitably when you're working in education, you're going to encounter difficult decisions," Dickey said. "You're going to encounter challenging decisions. But if you've laid the groundwork and you've built relationships with the people around you and the people around you trust you and they know that you always have the students' best interests in mind and that is what is guiding all your decisions, everything else kind of falls into place."

As for agricultural education, Dickey said he'd want to have discussions as a staff and a community about what the program needs and what could make it better for the kids.

"(We would) get feedback from the community - What do you want as a community for your children?" he said. "Then we would move into how we make that happen. What are the things that we need to do? You have to think outside of the box a little bit and you have to be creative. It is also very fun bringing people together to tackle challenging problems that you're facing as a staff."

Dickey and Duncan will meet with the board again on Tuesday for interviews before the community forum.

After the forum, the board will convene in a special board meeting where public comment will be accepted. The board will then go into executive session before announcing the next steps in the selection process.

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This story was originally published May 30, 2026 at 10:19 PM.