Selecting superintendent top priority for new Puyallup school board
The Puyallup School District expects to name a new superintendent by the beginning of February, according to board president Kathy Yang.
Current superintendent Tim Yeomans announced in tandem with the school board last week he plans to step back given the board approves contract amendments in January. He will continue to collect his salary as a consultant for the district until his retirement in August.
Yang said choosing a new superintendent is the board’s top priority, with hopes that person can start in July.
“As we work on everything else, this is forefront,” she told The Herald. “We want the absolute best candidate to lead this district.”
Puyallup School District has faced a contentious past few years with teacher strikes, balancing budgets and meeting state criteria on student standards.
The Herald asked Yang and the two newly-elected board members, Joseph Romero and Turan Kayaoglu, about qualifications for the superintendent position.
An ideal candidate would be able to overcome the divide between teachers and the administration, the board members said.
Puyallup teachers joined the hundreds of educators in September 2018 across the state in a striking after a failed summer of contract negotiations. It was the first time in 72 years the school district’s teachers’ union, the Puyallup Education Association, called for a strike.
The teachers’ union argued the state had set aside additional funding for salary increases in the “McCleary promise.” Since the strike, the union did not back a 2019 bond measure to renovate the district high schools, which failed, and slapped a vote of no confidence on Yeomans.
In the search for his replacement, Yang said the most important item on her checklist is finding a personality that brings people together to work collaboratively.
“That’s really what we need, someone to help people heal from the recent rifts,” Yang said.
Romero said finding a superintendent for the entire community is important but did not detail qualities he is looking for in a candidate.
“Selecting a new superintendent, we have to remember that our community is passionate and has a small-town feel,” Romero said. “These decisions will impact the entire community.”
Kayaoglu, a politics professor at the University of Washington Tacoma said the way the district handled the teacher’s strike made him decide to run for school board. A qualified superintendent candidate would improve the culture of a “fractured” district, Kayaoglu said.
“Someone who has previous success in dealing with teachers unions, in how they communicate and a high level of emotional intelligence,” Kayaoglu said.
Kayaoglu and Yang also emphasized finding a superintendent who prioritizes balancing the budget. Within the past five years, Puyallup School District’s enrollment surged 6.2 percent, but funding over that time increased by less than 1 percent, the district said in a budget meeting.
“Someone who really understands finance,” Yang said. “It stems from challenges we face. How to maximize what we have with the resources we have available to use.”
Of Washington’s 295 school districts, 271 collect more local levy taxes per pupil than Puyallup, according to the League of Education Voters.
Voters in Tacoma, Sumner, Fife and University Place school districts have implemented higher, state-approved property-tax levies to help fund operations. The state Legislature passed a bill in April allowing school districts to levy at a higher rate if approved by voters. The measure would give Puyallup the power to raise the current rate of $1.85 per $1,000 of assessed property value to $2.50.
The Puyallup School Board tabled a measure in August that would have asked voters for a levy raise because it did not believe it could pass alongside the high school construction bond, The Herald previously reported.
Kayaoglu said he is looking for a candidate who can push for local funding to ensure students get the best education.
“It seems we will continue to face financial challenges, so we need funding in the most efficient way possible,” he said.
The school board will hold a public interview of six superintendent candidates on Jan. 25 at 8 a.m. in Ferrucci Junior High Commons.
This story was originally published December 30, 2019 at 5:35 AM.
