An interim no longer. After serving as the Sequim School District’s top administrator on an interim basis since mid-summer, Gary Neal moves into the role permanently.
The school district’s board of directors unanimously voted to hire Neal to lead Sequim schools Monday night.
“It feels very good; this is what I was looking for,” Neal said Monday night. “I just bought a house here. I don’t want to leave.”
Board directors voiced their confidence in Neal on just a day before hearing results of a $49.3 million school construction bond proposal.
“Every group we heard from said, ‘Let us move forward,’” board president Bev Horan said. “We’ve been so clear what the expectations are (for Neal, and) he is just so positive. He’s been so helpful to us as a board and in the community.
“He’s really continued (the role) in a real positive way and been out there 110 percent (touting the bond proposal).”
The vote ended a selection process that began in earnest in February, when the board selected three finalists, declined to offer them contracts and agreed to moved Neal into the interim role in mid-May.
Since then, Neal said, it’s been essentially a four-month-plus long interview.
“We’ve heard from a lot of staff people and administrators … how well the school district is going,” director John Bridge said.
“I came out of my discussions with our stakeholders groups and others in the community with great confidence,” director Mike Howe added. “I’m very excited about the future of Sequim.”
Neal worked as principal of West Valley High School in Spokane from 2006-2014. He has a superintendent’s certificate from Washington State University, a master’s degree in administration and curriculum from Gonzaga University, continuing elementary and secondary teacher certification from Eastern Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education from Washington State University.
Neal was second in administrative command behind Kelly Shea for the 2014-2015 school year. Shea announced he was accepting the top administrator’s job with the East Valley (Spokane) School District earlier this year.
Following Shea’s announcement, Neal applied for the Sequim superintendent position, but wasn’t selected as one of the three finalists. After the board balked at offering the job to two of the finalists — one dropped out of the selection process prior to a Sequim board vote — Neal officially moved into the interim role on July 1.
“One of the things we talked about is, do they want me to keep the status quo or (to) want me to push forward?” Neal recalled. “They allowed me to get my feet dirty. That was a green light for me to go for it.”
Neal said he feels Sequim’s school staffers are working well together.
“We’re all rowing in the same direction,” he said. “That’s hard to find.”
Other board action
Sequim school board members voted to approve contributing $5,000 to a feasibility study to reopen and operate the Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center (SARC).
The school district uses the facility for several programs, including boys and girls high school swim teams and lessons for second-grade students.
Neal noted that the survey also had drawn contributions from the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, Olympic Medical Center, the City of Sequim and Clallam County, along with the Olympic Peninsula YMCA, a group spearheading the survey after SARC board commissioners agreed to consider a partnership with the YMCA.
“This would be a perfect way to be partnering in the community,” Neal said. “Obviously this is not something we’ve budgeted for … but this is an opportunity to have some relationships with some folks.”
Neal said it’s unclear which specific part of the budget the $5,000 would come from, but that the district could absorb the cost by cutting back in other programs without having a significant reduction in any one category.
Howe voted against the motion, noting that the contribution could set a precedence for future requests for school contributions and that it was unclear where the funding would come from.
“Other school districts, in their communities, they’re the one that provide the pools,” Bridge noted. “We’re fortunate that another organization does that for us. (And) I’m not sure that sets much of a precedence.”
The board also voted to:
• accept letters of resignation from Cecilia Buhrer, Olympic Peninsula Academy learning coach, and from groundskeeper Samuel Thomas Stumbaugh;
• offer a classified high school registrar position to Sierra Brittel;
• approve a contract for services with birth-3 child development coordinator Margaret Ahlgren;
• approve an agreement with the Educational Service District No. 112 for K-3 Class Size Reduction Grant Program assistance, and
• approve a contract with Judy Price to serve as a hearing officer in the appeal of student disciplinary actions.
