Chimacum board continues superintendent search

CHIMACUM — The Chimacum School Board is continuing the search for a new superintendent to replace Mike Blair, who is retiring in June after seven years at the helm of the district which serves 1,130 students.

The application deadline is Feb. 25, and the five-member board intends to make an offer to a candidate by March 16, according to a brochure on the Chimacum School District Web site, www.chimacum.wednet.edu/.

Compensation will be based on the candidate’s “quality of experience and proven abilities,” the district said in the brochure.

The School Board will, during a closed executive session, discuss the search for a new district administrator, during a closed executive session Wednesday.

The board will meet at 7 p.m. in the Chimacum High School Library, 91 West Valley Road.

Referring to Blair’s “exemplary service,” the board said in its brochure that it seeks candidates with doctorates in education and superintendent experience.

The board’s time line calls for preliminary interviews to be conducted by March 6, full-day district visitation from March 9-11, board deliberations on March 11 and a job offer five days later, with the new superintendent starting work July 1.

Applications are to be sent to Northwest Leadership Associates in Mt. Vernon.

Blair was president of a coalition that pursued a lawsuit claiming that the state was not paying adequately for public education.

The group, Network for Excellence in Washington Schools, included Chimacum and 29 other public school districts.

A 25-day trial in King County Superior Court, which pitted more than 70 education-related plaintiffs who filed suit against the state of Washington — and in which Blair testified — ended in October.

A ruling originally was expected by last Monday, but the period was extended, and now Kings County Superior Court Judge John Erlick is expected to issue a ruling on or before Feb. 23, according to the Coalition’s Web site at www.waschoolexcellence.org.

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