SEQUIM — The Sequim School Board will consider selecting a search firm Dec. 5 to help find a new Sequim School District superintendent.

The new schools chief would succeed Bill Bentley, who in early November announced he would retire effective June 30.

School Board President John Bridges said the board will invite at least two firms to make presentations at a work session prior to the 7 p.m. Dec. 5 meeting.

“What we’d like to do is choose one and get the search under way,” Bridges said.

“Then we’ll be able to get a time line out” on filling the position.

Bentley, the Sequim School District’s superintendent since April 2007, said he was leaving to pursue other interests after 23 years as an administrator at different school districts.

Before coming to the Sequim district, Bentley was assistant superintendent of the 25,000-student Evergreen School District in Vancouver, Wash., to succeed former Superintendent Garn Christensen.

He said he and his wife, Lorna, plan to keep a home in Sequim but also plan to spend time in Vancouver to visit family.

Bridges said he appreciates Bentley gave the board seven months to hire a successor, and Bentley said he did so to give the board more time to select his successor.

The district has about 160 teachers, a staff of about 350 and more than 2,700 students, about the same as when he started in 2007.

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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.