Transparency, a key component of trust, cited as a key deficiency in Tahoma School District in Director interviews this week, is a top priority for the Board and administration to address, and will be for its new superintendent, as well. On Wednesday, I asked Director Pete Miller some key questions about the recent superintend change. Two days later, AJ Garcia, TSD’s media contact, was on an extensive Zoom call with me to answer them. Here’s what I learned.
Former superintendent Mike Hanson (who had announced his intention to resign in August but had not submitted his resignation), his wife a former teacher in TSD, and former Rock Creek principal Chris Thomas all entered into negotiations with the Board that were resolved by agreements reached in last month. These agreements resulted in permanent departures of these people from TSD and terminated their contracts later in 2024. Expensive and draining litigation that would have distracted TSD from its mission of safely educating our children was avoided. The agreements allow TSD to move past the controversies that surrounded Hanson and Thomas and continue to move forward to identify and fix many problems that plague the District. Because these were personnel contract negotiations, the District is prohibited by law from publicly revealing any aspect of the negotiations – except the result. Folks, this is extremely frustrating because many of us want to know the reasons why these personnel changes were necessary at this time. We the community must look past frustration and embrace the opportunities the departures of these employees open for us.
First opportunity: immediately install and support an interim superintendent. While continuing to press forward in its search for a permanent superintendent, TSD needed someone to step in quickly to run the day-to-day operations of the District, support preparing for a new leader, support renewal of expiring levies, and keep TSD an appealing institution for a new superintendent to want to lead. The Board looked at hiring an interim superintendent through a network of interim school board directors and reached out to the Puget Sound Educational Service District and its superintendent search consultants. None of these were perfect options – the financial cost was high and any potential interim leader would have come in unaware of the culture of our district and unknowledgeable of its strengths, problems, systems and people.
The Board considered Lori Cloud, fully aware of both her strengths and weaknesses. A former district administrator for nearly 20 years and recently retired, Lori has been donating significant time and expertise to TSD during its superintendent search. She has the knowledge of our district any outside interim superintendent would lack and has the expertise to run the day-to-day operations of the district. She also has support from an excellent Finance Director and two assistant superintendents, all of whom are managing not only the various complex operations of TSD but also leading teams of people who are working hard to make continuing substantial, needed improvements in the way TSD operates, including the just launched sexual abuse & molestation audit that is long overdue. Cloud made mistakes while serving as an assistant superintendent. Notably, she mishandled a newly-created IRS reporting requirement that was ultimately resolved with no fine, although it cost the district some legal fees, and she made some mistakes dealing with the employee who reported the IRS issues internally, resulting in more financial costs to TSD. Some criticized her management style. But, the Board (1) must have believed that she learned from these mistakes and (2) knows that systems to prevent recurrence are now in place in TSD that were not in place when her mistakes were made. Balancing all of this, the Board looked at Cloud’s strengths, experience, extensive knowledge of District operations, the District’s immediate needs while searching for a new, permanent superintendent, and Cloud’s willingness to serve on short notice and decided hiring her was the best of the realistic and available options. Cloud’s video message to the community on Facebook can be seen at https://www.facebook.com/share/v/9xyihnHN97ph8NfQ/?mibextid=WC7FNe
In an ideal world, the resource of time would have been abundant. TSD’s need for someone knowledgeable to run the district was immediate. The Board took action to protect the district, its employees and its students, maintain TSD’s strengths, support the upcoming levy election, and keep TSD an appealing place for a good, permanent superintendent to lead. This is what a school board is supposed to do, especially in times of turbulence.
The superintendent job posting closes January 12th. By early February, the Board hopes to have one to five finalists to consider for the position who will then be publicly identified. A Leadership Profile Report for TSD created with community input is already informing the Board what characteristics are needed in our new superintendent. It is posted on TSD’s website at https://www.tahomasd.us/our_district/superintendent_search_hub/lprt I was assured there will be an opportunity for members of the public to give input to the Board in reaching its selection decision and to ask questions. While waiting for this opportunity to be publicized, members of the community can compose their own questions of the candidates to submit when TSD is ready for them. This will help make the intense day of school visits by, and interviews by various community and educational groups of, the finalists revealing, efficient, and welcoming.
Jennifer C. Rydberg is a retired attorney, grandmother, and mother of two sons who attended Tahoma schools. She served a term on the Tahoma School District Board of Directors 1991-1995 including 1 year as its President.
