PORT ORCHARD — Seven semifinalists have been selected to take part in interviews this Saturday for the South Kitsap School District superintendent position currently held by Karst Brandsma.
Brandsma will retire at the end of the school year in June.
The district announced the candidates in a news release distributed Thursday. One of the seven candidates currently is an administrator with South Kitsap School District — Jay Villars, the district’s current deputy superintendent of Learning and Instructional Support. Villars has been a junior high principal and assistant superintendent during his 19-year tenure with the school district.
The semifinalists — Dr. Christine Moloney, Tim Winter, John Boyd, Dr. Heidi Pace, Villars, Dr. Erin Prince and Shawn Woodward — will be interviewed by the school district board of directors. The interviews, which begin at 8:30 a.m. in the South Kitsap High School Library, are open to the public. According to district spokeswoman Amy Miller, the field of semifinalists will be narrowed to three finalists, each of whom will spend a day in South Kitsap during the Feb. 26-28 timeframe. The candidates will tour some schools in the district and meet with staff, students and community members.
A community forum also will be scheduled for each candidate at 6:30 p.m. on the day of their visit to the district’s headquarters office, Miller said.
Here is a thumbnail summary of each candidate:
Dr. Christine Moloney, the chief academic officer for the Puyallup School District, offers 18 years of public school educational administrative experience, all in Washington state. In addition to her work at Puyallup, Moloney was a teacher and building administrator in the Bethel School District. She earned a doctorate degree in education from City University.
Tim Winter, currently superintendent of the Clarkston School District in Washington state, has had that job since 2014. He also was a high school principal and assistant principal for nine years in the Peninsula School District. With 14 years of teaching experience in Clarkston, Olympia and the Peninsula school districts, Winter earned his superintendent certificate from Washington State University.
John Boyd has been superintendent of the Quincy School District since 2014. With 15 years of building- and district-level leadership in the Edmonds, Seattle and Highline school districts, Boyd taught and served as an instructional assistant in Seattle for nine years. He received his superintendent certificate from WSU in 2017.
Dr. Heidi Pace was superintendent of Summit County Schools in Frisco, Colo., from 2011 to 2016. Before taking on that leadership position, Pace worked for 27 years as a teacher, assistant principal and district-level leader in Academy District 20 in Colorado Springs. She earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Denver.
In addition to his leadership experience at South Kitsap, Villars also has nine years of administrative experience in California and in the Port Townsend and North Kitsap school districts. He taught for six years in California and has a superintendent certificate from Western Washington University.
Dr. Erin Prince is a consultant with Prince Catalyst Consulting. From 2016-2018, Prince was vice president of educational policy, Chalkboard Project, Foundations for a Better Oregon. She led the Corvallis School District as superintendent for five years and was a teacher, principal and district administrator in the Greater Albany, Lake Oswego and Sherwood school districts in Oregon. Prince received a doctorate in philosophy from Oregon State University.
Shawn Woodward is superintendent of Lake Pend Oreille School District in Sandpoint, Idaho, and has been in that position since 2012. From 2008 to 2012, Woodward was assistant superintendent at North Kitsap School District. He has roots to the South Kitsap area, teaching in the district from 1992 to 1999. He later became a principal in the Burlington-Edison School District in Washington state. He earned a superintendent certificate from Western Washington University.
More information on the superintendent search process is available on the school district’s website at www.skschools.org or by calling 360-874-7001.
