Less than 24 hours after becoming the new permanent superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, Dr. Larry Nyland addressed the selection process by which he obtained the job and what he plans to do in the new role.
Wednesday night, Seattle school board directors voted 5-2 to extend Nyland’s contract from interim to permanent, through June of 2017.
Some people complained there wasn’t a formal search process as the board said it would do in the summer.
When asked whether the public has less confidence in him because of the selection process, Nyland said, “I understand the challenge for the school board. It’s always that balance between having lots of public input and a very public process, and the alternative here: having the opportunity to see me and work with me over the last four to five months.”
He said the public can look at his track record, including his years as superintendent of Marysville Public Schools. There, he raised the graduation rate from 50 percent to 72 percent. He also patched relations with a school board there ridden with conflict.
Nyland said he plans to take the first 120 days to improve the district’s communication with the public.
He said that within 30 days, he would like a call list for people to know whom to contact for each type of question. In the following 30 days, he would want training done for all people in the district building who would most likely take those questions. In the third 30 days, he said he wants plans for how to address hot topics, like the recent discussion on lunch time and recess. Finally, he wants a plan in place for the coming year for the district to become a listening organization, capturing all phone calls and email input from the public.
Nyland said he also hopes to have the district taken off the federal watch list at the end of the school year, for having a broken special education program. He said they are on track to do so.
Wednesday night, board directors cited high turnover of senior staff as a reason district challenges are hard to overcome.
Board Director Sherry Carr said, “No successful and high-functioning organization can sustain this level of chronic leadership turnover. Just simply, we’ve got to stop it. We’ve got to stabilize this organization.”
Nyland said most of his cabinet had only been on the job for less than two years.
Carr said that within Nyland’s four months as interim superintendent, “He has amazingly quickly been able to assess some of the root cause issues of Seattle Public Schools and has begun to set the organization on a course of action.”
However, a former school board director, Sally Soriano, said, “Well, what is that plan? What does that plan look like? I want to see that plan, and I want to speak to it.”
Two current board directors voted against Nyland’s permanent role and said more time was needed for a search and vetting process. But the majority disagreed.
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