After an extensive, exhaustive, and comprehensive process involving multiple community groups, parents, students, staff, teachers, and school districts, the Board of Directors of Tahoma School District selected Dr. Ginger Callison to be the next superintendent of the District at a special meeting on Valentine’s Day. The selection is subject to a successful contract negotiation and Dr. Callison passing a background check.
At both the special meeting and the regular meeting the night before, all Board members expressed their gratitude for the people and the process that was used to conduct this superintendent search and their deep appreciation that everyone came to the search process with positive intent and deep commitment. Confidence was expressed that “we’ll get a good candidate because we’ve run a good process with integrity.” Board members were especially grateful for the extra time, caring and commitment given to this project by students, staff, teachers, and administrators at every school and throughout the TSD administration team, by the candidates who submitted applications and especially the finalists and their districts – Bellevue School District and Snoqualmie School District, and the Board Directors as well.
The process of selecting a new superintendent began after the former superintendent, Mike Hanson, announced his intent to resign last September. The TSD Board unanimously selected HYA to help lead the search for a new superintendent. HYA has served over 1,600 school districts in 42 states, including 8 in Washington, for similar searches.
After the Board defined that it wanted a transparent and open process involving as many stakeholders as possible in the superintendent search, HYA sent out a survey and held individual interviews, focus groups, and four staff/community forums. A total of 1,166 responses were received from TSD’s students, family, community, staff, teachers, and administrators. This identified TSD’s strengths and challenges and desired characteristics of the new superintendent.
The job posting HYA developed with TSD was then publicized, with applications closing in mid-January. Of the 29 people who applied, 7 were selected by the Board as semi-finalists and were interviewed by the Board in private meetings. From this, three finalists were selected who underwent an extensive background screening and, on February 6th, public interviews and community engagement sessions. Two finalists were selected: Dr. Ginger Callison, Assistant Superintendent of Snoqualmie Valley School District, and Dr. Heather Sanchez, Chief of Schools at Bellevue School District.
TSD’s Board of Directors attended site visits at both the Bellevue and Snoqualmie Valley school districts to observe the two finalists’ work and leadership styles firsthand and to gather feedback from their colleagues.
Citing that TSD is “on the right path” and “moving in the right direction” with an excellent team approach to address the challenges that face the District, on February 14th TSD’s Board unanimously nominated Ginger Callison, Ed. D. as TSD’s next superintendent to lead our schools. Dr. Callison is currently the Assistant Superintendent, Student Learning in the Snoqualmie Valley School District having served in that role for the past 4 years. With 31 years in public education, she has served 17 years as a building level administrator in the Tukwila and Enumclaw school districts and 7 years in central office administration in the Federal Way and Snoqualmie Valley school districts.
The Tahoma School Board will begin negotiations on a regionally-competitive contract with Dr. Callison, tentatively scheduled to go into effect July 1, 2024. The Board expects Dr. Callison to make several site visits and begin learning about Tahoma School District during spring 2024.
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.
