By Charlie Bermant Peninsula Daily News
CHIMACUM — The superintendent of San Juan Islands School District has been offered the position of leading the Chimacum School District.
The School Board unanimously chose Rick Thompson, 51, who has led the San Juan district since 2010, over two other finalists for the superintendent’s position after a three-hour executive session Tuesday night.
A new superintendent will take over from interim appointee Rich Stewart, who has led the district for two years following the resignation of Craig Downs.
Thompson said Wednesday he intends to accept the position.
“I like the people, I like the area and got into a lot of good conversations when I was down there,” Thompson said.
Miller said the board instructed Stewart and business manager Art Clarke to negotiate a contract for salary and benefits. Miller said he expected the contract process would be completed this week.
Stewart said the salary range is between $120,000 and $125,000 per year, a higher rate than the $65,000 Stewart earns as a part-time superintendent. Final approval is based on completion of the negotiations and board approval, Stewart said.
Board chairman Kevin Miller said Thompson was chosen because of his experience as both a high school principal and a superintendent.
“We are a small district, and it’s rare that we get an applicant who already has superintendent experience,” Miller said.
“Having that experience gives him a 10,000-foot view of what a district like ours needs.”
Thompson said the biggest challenge was to provide quality education with the money available.
“The money we get doesn’t seem to be commensurate with what we need to do a good job,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s hard to balance it all.”
Thompson said he has notified his district about the possibility of leaving and expects to start in Chimacum on July 1.
Thompson was chosen over Chris Rust, principal of Warden High School in Warden and Deborah Holcomb, the director of student services in the Highline School District in Burien.
The three candidates were chosen from five semifinalists, Stewart said. Thirteen people had applied.
The candidates were screened by consultant Michael Boring, who also had participated in Stewart’s selection. As part of the process, the three candidates appeared at separate public forums.
Three hundred comments from the public were collected, “and we read every one while we were making our decision,” Miller said.
The San Juan Island School District has an enrollment of about 900 students and operates an elementary school, middle school, high school and alternative high school.
The 1,000-student Chimacum School system includes a high school, middle school, elementary school and alternative school on a single campus as well as a primary school in another location. The system failed to gain a supermajority vote in support of a $34 million bond in February but is poised to resubmit the measure to voters, Miller said.
Currently, the district is surveying the public about the bond and will determine next steps once the results are collected, he said.
The deadline for submitting a measure to the Jefferson County Auditor’s Office for inclusion on the April 28 special election ballot is March 13.
Miller said it is possible the district will make that deadline, but only if the survey results have been collected and analyzed.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
— A Sound Publishing-owned news and information source, The Peninsula Daily News is a sister paper of the Journal.
