Quick Board Special Meeting Yields Two Superintendent Candidates

The meeting started at 4:31 pm with all Board directors present. President Gina Topp said there is a Mariners playoff game tonight and they hoped to be done before it got started. 

Topp thanked the over 3,000 people who gave input on superintendent attributes desired. She said the directors had two days of interviews with the eight candidates who came out of the 40-person candidate application pool. 

The finalists selected tonight will have their background checks done and more interviews with directors. She said that they had, "a strong pool of applicants including sitting superintendents in this closed process." 

She asked if directors had any questions. Silence.

Topp moved on and said that she favored Candidate 7 and Candidate 8 and that both "currently hold leadership positions." She asked directors for any other candidates they favored. Silence.

Topp stated that both candidates will remain "confidential" in final interviews. She said both finalists were asked for a "100-day plan" that would "set their priorities" from the start.

All the directors voted yes for these two candidates. 

Given they all voted yes for both candidates is a good sign.  In the end, they may argue over which one but that they all settled on the same two is good. 

The meeting ended at 4:41 pm. 

Questions

1) The Board is being very coy about this process and I'm beginning to think all the public will get is an announcement, "It's this person." I would be VERY unhappy with that. I believe students and staff and parents should get a chance to hear from each candidate. 

2) It is unclear to me if the directors actually know the names of the candidates and where they currently work. 

3) Topp did not state when these two candidates would be interviewed - maybe next week? With an announcement the week after? 

What questions do you have?

Comments

Outsider said…
If the directors already had interviews with the 8 semi-finalists (seems to be what Topp said), they must know their names and current positions.
10/15/25, 5:38 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
They seem to be saying it’s all been blind. And since they will not be transparent on the process, it’s hard to know who knows what.
10/15/25, 7:06 PM
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