The Nampa School District is looking for its fourth superintendent since 2012, and the district is looking for some help from the community.
A 16-member community committee will head up the superintendent search in the state’s third largest school district.
The superintendent shuffle began in the fall of 2012, when longtime chief Gary Larsen resigned amidst a growing financial crisis. Interim Superintendent Thomas Michaelson was hired in November to try to right the district’s finances; the veteran administrator abruptly resigned in May, after school board members rejected a proposal to slash elementary school counseling, music and physical education positions. Nampa High School Principal Pete Koehler was promoted to succeed Michaelson, but Koehler took the job on an interim basis, and plans to retire after the district makes a permanent hire.
The search committee will be led by Richard Hagood, a former president of Northwest Nazarene University; and Molly Lenty, founder of Community for Nampa Schools, a group that campaigned for a Nampa supplemental school levy, approved in March.
The 16-member committee also includes three principals, two Nampa School Board members, and two Nampa Education Association officers.
Here is the Nampa School District news release:
The search for the Nampa School District’s next superintendent will be led by a retired university president and a community leader.
The Nampa Board of Trustees appointed a 16-member Superintendent Search Committee Tuesday to recruit a new leader for the district and involve the community in the process.
Leading the committee will be two co-chairmen — Dr. Richard Hagood, retired president of Northwest Nazarene University and Molly Lenty, Wells Fargo vice president and manager of community relations and Community for Nampa Schools founder. The other committee members represent parents, business, and community groups as well as teachers, administrators and employees in the district.
“I appreciate the committee members commitment to our district and for involving and engaging the community in this process to identify and select our next superintendent,” said Daren Coon, chairman, Nampa board of trustees.
The committee has held two organizational meetings and will meet again Oct. 22. The meetings are open to the public and times and locations will be posted on the Nampa School District website: www.nsd131.org.
Other search committee members include:
- Kelly Gibbons, College of Western Idaho Foundation interim director.
- Dennis Keck, West Middle School, music teacher and Nampa Education Association community relations officer.
- Jacqueline Harrison, Nampa High School bookkeeper.
- Anne-Marie Henning, Micron Foundation accountant.
- Greg Heideman, Lone Star Middle School principal.
- Jaimee Hoesing, Centennial Elementary School kindergarten teacher and Nampa Education Association president.
- Debbie Kling, Nampa Chamber of Commerce president and CEO.
- Dr. Brian McGourty, Nampa board of trustees and Nampa optometrist.
- Bob Otten, Nampa board of trustees and retired elementary teacher.
- Kristin Pancheri, family trucking and farming business manager.
- Gregg Russell, Reagan Elementary School principal.
- Dr. Al Sanchez, Northwest Nazarene University professor.
- Bobby Sanchez, assistant to the mayor of Nampa.
- Cory Woolstenhulme, Columbia High School principal.
