PORT ORCHARD — Superintendent Tim Winter will be staying in place at South Kitsap School District following Peninsula School District’s announcement Friday morning that finalist Krestin Bahr from Eatonville School District has been selected as its next leader.

Winter, who joined South Kitsap as superintendent in 2019, was the other finalist for the Peninsula post. The district conducted a second series of interviews and virtual meetings with the two candidates earlier in the week.

The school board chose Bahr to be Peninsula’s next leader after an extensive superintendent search process led by consultant firm Northwest Leadership Associates, which was hired by the board in October. Preliminary interviews were held with five semifinalists on March 13, and day-long second interviews with various staff groups and members of the community were held with Winter and Bahr this week.

The board said it will finalize Bahr’s contract at its regular meeting on March 25. She will assume her duties on July 1, the district said in a news release.

In the news release, Peninsula School Board President David Olson said, “The board has spent several months reviewing all stakeholder input from various surveys and extensively researched each candidate in preparing for this monumental decision. We were humbled to have such accomplished and deserving applicants.”

Winter was hired by South Kitsap School District to take the helm from retiring Karst Brandsma after a six-year period as superintendent at Clarkston School District. He was principal of Peninsula High School from 2007 to 2014.