SNOQUALMIE – The Snoqualmie Valley School District Board of Directors took steps last week to get public input on two major decisions the district will be making in the near future.
At its Sept. 16 meeting, the board started the process of naming a new elementary school that is set to open in Snoqualmie, and naming a replacement for superintendent Rich McCullough, who will be leaving the district next summer to accept a teaching position with Western Washington University.
Public input will be sought for both of projects. The first will be naming the district’s fifth elementary school, which is scheduled to open next fall. The school, located in the Snoqualmie Ridge neighborhood, will be located at the corner of Southeast Ridge Street and Center Boulevard.
Name nomination forms will be sent home with all of the district’s students, but the forms can also be filled out on or downloaded from the district Web site, or be picked up from the district’s administrative office. The deadline for submitting nominations will be Oct. 22. After reviewing the nominations, the school board will announce its decision on Dec. 2.
Most of the district’s schools have simple names denoting where they are located. Only two schools in the district have been named after a per on. Chief Kanim Middle School in Fall City was named after the seminal Snoqualmie Tribe chief, and Opstad Elementary School in North Bend was named after Edwin Opstad, who was the first superintendent in the district.
The district expects anywhere from 60-100 submissions for name ideas.
“If you think naming a superintendent who will be here for 17 years is a big decision, try naming a school that will be here for 117 years,” McCullough said.
McCullough’s “17 year” remark was regarding his tenure at the district, which will be ending next June. The board interviewed Dennis Ray, the first of two candidates of the superintendent search firm the district will hire to find McCullough’s replacement. Ray is a faculty member at the College of Education at Washington State University and has been involved in more than 70 superintendent searches with his firm named Northwest Leadership Associates.
Ray outlined a preliminary timeline for how his firm would conduct the search for candidates. After talking with community members and district staff, the firm would put together a brochure that would hopefully go out to school districts by early December. After the first of the year, the district board would bring in six to eight candidates for interviews. Of those, probably three would be brought back to spend a day in the district meeting with staff and community members. While Ray said there would be opportunities for public involvement along the way, the final decision will be left to the school board.
The superintendent position in the Snoqualmie Valley School District will draw top candidates, Ray said. Although superintendent positions have been increasingly hard to fill and other districts are competing for top candidates, the Snoqualmie Valley position should have its pick from the best of the best.
“This is a great job,” Ray said.
Terry Lindquist, who works with the second superintendent search firm being considered, will be interviewed at the next board meeting on Oct. 14.
* To access the school name nomination form from the district’s Web site, visit www.snoqualmie.k12.wa.us. The district’s administrative office is located at 8001 Silva Ave. S.E., in Snoqualmie.
