Pierce County school district chooses interim superintendent after canceling forums
After advertising then canceling community meetings with candidates for superintendent last week, the Bethel School Board has chosen Brian Lowney as interim district superintendent for the 2024-2025 school year.
Lowney is in his second year as assistant superintendent for secondary schools in the district and has more than 25 years of experience in K-12 education, including 23 years in the Puyallup School District. Tom Seigel was the longest-serving superintendent the district ever had and announced his retirement after 23 years in April.
The Bethel School District had advertised online it would host community and staff forums with candidates for superintendent the week of May 27 but canceled those meetings.
“After extensive consideration and discussion over the past two months, the Bethel Board of Directors has decided to suspend its current search for a new superintendent. This decision comes despite the impressive pool of qualified candidates, both internal and external, who progressed through the process,” district communications director Doug Boyles told The News Tribune via email Wednesday. “The Board recognizes the disappointment this news may bring, especially given the caliber of the applicants. Hiring a superintendent is the Board’s most important decision, and in this case, the timing for such a critical hire simply was not right. We remain committed to finding the best possible leader for our district.”
School board president Marcus Young told The News Tribune on Thursday he couldn’t repeat what was discussed in the board’s private executive sessions.
Appointing an interim superintendent will give the district more time to search and vet candidates, he said.
“Bethel School District is a very unique school district … because we do not have municipality support [in unincorporated Pierce County],” Young said. “With the number of students in the area that we cover, with the lack of services that we have in that area, we can’t afford to not make the right decision.”
The district wants to take more time to avoid future turnover and “so that we have continuity and consistency for our staff, our students and for this community,” he said.
Bethel School District has hired a firm to survey community and staff needs, gather a large net of candidates and organize interviews, Young said. He said there wasn’t anything wrong with the current pool of candidates, but the district is hoping in appointing an interim superintendent there will be more time to widen the candidate pool for superintendent.
Young said in posting about the public forums with candidates last week the board wanted to keep the community informed so they could participate.
“I understand the confusion that it may have caused,” he said. “We will start that up when we deem that’s the perfect time.”
Lowney is a great worker with a passion for students’ needs and an understanding of where the district is heading and what the board wants to accomplish, Young said. The interim superintendent will not be expected to “reinvent the wheel,” but Lowney will provide a fresh set of eyes, he said.
Student achievement, resources focus of interim
The Bethel School Board approved the appointment of Lowney as interim superintendent Tuesday night, with an annual salary of $268,529, in addition to $22,500 towards the purchase of a tax-sheltered annuity retirement plan, according to the interim superintendent contract. He starts July 1.
Prior to his role as assistant superintendent for secondary schools, Lowney was the executive director of special services in the district, working closely with special education parents and staff, as well as multilingual staff and students. During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lowney said he was also in charge of health and nurses.
During his time in the Puyallup School District, he started out as a high school business marketing teacher, English teacher and advisor before serving as an assistant principal for two years. Lowney said he was high school principal of Emerald Ridge High School for 10 years, and, before he came to the Bethel School District, served as the chief academic officer of the Puyallup School District, overseeing kindergarten through 12th grade.
“I agreed to the appointment, and I’m excited about it because I love Bethel. We’re the hub of the community,” he told The News Tribune on Thursday, saying he shares Seigel’s passion to bring resources to students and the community at large.
“My real goal is to continue us headed in the direction we’re headed, which is around student achievement, supporting students’ social emotional needs, making sure that we are the hub of the community and continue to expand resources to kids and families, and serv[ing] our most marginalized kiddos,” Lowney said, adding he’d work with the school board to make annual course corrections based on test scores and identified needs.
Lowney said he’s not going to be a “mini-me” of Seigel, but said Seigel’s stubbornness has rubbed off on him working together the last four years.
“I’ve heard 100 times about how we don’t have a YMCA or hospital, and that we only have three miles of public transportation in a 200-plus square mile district,” he said. “That’s Tom’s passion for those things, and they’ve definitely impacted all of us that work in Bethel. In any leader in Bethel, you’ll see a little bit of Tom in all of us, but our styles aren’t identical.”
Lowney said he wants to be visible in the community and build relationships not only with students and staff but with outside entities who can partner to bring more parks, public transportation, health clinics and activities to the school district.
“Our kids and our families deserve a voice in the community,” he said. “I started as a teacher. I have a teacher’s heart. In my head, I was a principal for all those years so I’m in a principal’s headspace most of my day. And then in this role as interim superintendent, I’m really about building capacity as a team so that we can continue the great work that’s happening at Bethel.”
