Superintendent finalists raise eyebrows, questions in Pierce County school district
Families and union members are concerned about finalists for the Eatonville School District superintendent job.
One of the three has a federal complaint by parents and staff against him in another district. Another left his district after the school board and union voted against a contract extension. The third has no superintendent experience.
Sarah Cole, mother of a high school student and two Eatonville graduates, said picking the right person for the job is crucial to moving out of the coronavirus pandemic.
“(The current superintendent) did an exceptional job during the pandemic and before that. She stepped up and we are sitting pretty sound, but I think now, moving forward, we need someone to navigate the post pandemic like diversity, equity and inclusion challenges and addressing the social and emotional impact of the pandemic,” Cole said
The current superintendent, Krestin Bahr, has been hired as the superintendent at Peninsula School District. She will start her new job July 1 after more than seven years leading Eatonville. Prior to that, she was director of secondary education for middle schools in the Tacoma School District.
Jeff Dillon from Idaho, Gary Neal from Sequim and Jay Brower from Bethel were named as potential candidates for her replacement.
Eatonville Education Association’s president, Michael Sniezak, said he wishes the educator’s union had been involved in the selection process. He has heard concerns from informal discussions with members and emails from the community.
“I was concerned with some red flags that came up right away,” Sniezak said. “It is disappointing that the finalists drew so much concern from my members. People are definitely concerned. Everyone is wondering, why them?”
Board chairman Jeff Lucas sent a statement in response to The News Tribune’s interview request.
“Please be assured that the Board of Directors has performed ample due diligence in the evaluation of the superintendent candidates,” Lucas said in an email.
Jeff Dillon
Dillon is the top administrator at a western Idaho school district, Wilder School District. The district received praise from Ivanka Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook for its online learning implementation in 2018, according to the Idaho Press.
Wilder is a low-income school district. About 98 percent of the students come from homes classified as low-income by the Idaho Department of Education. Hispanic students make up about 70 percent of the district.
The Idaho Press said parents sent complaints and concerns to Juan Saldaña of the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs in September 2017.
“The commission usually only receives one or two letters at a time,” Saldaña said, but the amount received was so “overwhelming” it decided to forward them to state Superintendent Sherri Ybarra’s office, the Idaho Press article said.
Dillon is facing litigation from an anonymous group that filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, according to the Idaho Statesman.
The complaint alleges the district has no formal English language learner (ELL) program, and, when students were identified as needing the program, they did not receive adequate instruction, the Idaho Statesman reported in January.
According to state education metrics, Wilder as a district has reported less than 12 percent of students reaching proficiency in English. The district’s percentage of students making English progress dropped from 61.5 percent in 2019 to 42.3 percent in 2020.
Idaho’s reading proficiency statewide in 2019 was 54.7 percent on average. Wilder School District was reported as 20.8 percent, according to the state database.
The complaint also alleges that there is a culture of fear under Dillon.
“Mr. Dillon then used info he learned from our complaint to retaliate against the parents who had complained by treating them and their children badly,” one complainant alleged. “Elementary students had their recess taken away. Middle and high school students had privileges revoked. … Dr. Dillon threatened expulsion of students and deportation of immigrant parents.”
Dillon did not respond for comment from The News Tribune before publication. In a meet-and-greet with Eatonville community members during the interview process, he addressed the complaint.
“I’m very confident, 100 percent confident that we are doing the best things for kids, right things for kids. The state says we’re doing the best things for kids,” he said during the hour-long event. “Those documents really are an error. There’s no facts in there and with that we just have a full, deep, two-day dive from the state to come in. They spend two days on campus, and they look at every piece of paper and they look at every form they look at. They say, ‘Yeah, you’re doing what we’re supposed to do.’”
Gary Neal
Neal was the superintendent at Sequim School District from 2015 to 2019. He left in June after the school board voted twice against extending his contract, according to the Sequim Gazette.
The Sequim Education Association voted 88 percent against a contract extension. President Diana Piersoll did not respond to requests for comment, but the union told Sequim Gazette in 2019 that public comments made during a school board meeting prompted the vote.
“Why are we considering giving this guy a second chance that he wasn’t even going to be given a chance where he was?” Eatonville’s union president Sniezak said.
Neal resigned as the top administrator with more than a year on his contract, the Sequim Gazette said. He took a job as a director in the K-12 program at a construction company, Vanir Construction Management. Vanir oversaw the Sequim School District’s $5.75 million project for a new kitchen facility during Neal’s tenure as superintendent.
Cole liked Neal’s experience in getting bonds passed because she said Eatonville needs a bond for construction. Bonds take 60 percent approval by voters to pass. Eatonville’s $4 million bond measure in 2020 to renovate athletic facilities failed by seven points short. But, Cole was worried by his resignation.
“That was concerning to me, that he would leave that role early to take another job,” she said.
Neal could not be reached for comment but said in the community meet-and-greet that he was recruited by the construction company. He said he enjoyed being a small district superintendent for four years.
“I really wasn’t sure what was going on at that time, outside of this vice president for this construction management firm who was interested in me and asking me more about my background and found out my success with bonds and levies,” he said. “One of the biggest things that captured me was I wondered what it would be like if my skill set in public education up to that point would transfer to private industry. Then I was also interested to see if I could help some districts pass some bonds and levies that they typically were struggling with.”
Lucas said the Eatonville board is comfortable with both Dillon and Neal.
“We are confident in the qualifications of both Dr. Dillon and Mr. Neal,” Lucas said in his statement.
Cole, who also filed for a school board position this week, said if the board is confident in its finalists, she wants the community to see more information about them.
“The board knows more than the community member who has only seen an hour of interaction; however I think for us, we need the full package and what Dillon and Neal may have that fit our district,” she said. “We need someone who has all the things who can advance us rather than pull us backwards.”
Jay Brower
A third finalist is the community connections director at Bethel School District. Sniezak said he knows Brower personally.
“He was a known entity to me. So when I saw his name come through, I was a little bit surprised, only because I knew he hadn’t done the job of superintendent. But, I also knew that by the work he did and the way he did his job, he’s definitely a man of integrity,” the union president said.
Cole thinks Brower’s lack of superintendent experience should not be held against him.
“Eatonville’s two most celebrated superintendents, Ray Arment and Bahr, both of them did not have prior superintendent experience. I don’t think that’s a deal breaker,” she said.
Brower did not respond for comment before publication. During his meet-and-greet he said he considers it an advantage that he lives and works nearby.
“I’m right next door in Bethel. I already know the legislators. I already know so many partners that can bring so much out here. It’s hard enough learning to be a superintendent, but to already have that in place, that will be a great benefit to Eatonville,” he said.
Eatonville School District’s Board of Directors initially scheduled a vote on May 14 but pushed the vote back to May 19 at 8 a.m.
“After consideration, the Board of Directors have decided to spend the weekend working to review all comments submitted through the feedback forms,” a district statement said. “They value the input of all stakeholders and want to make an informed decision.”
This story was originally published May 18, 2021 at 2:12 PM.
