Chimacum, Port Townsend school boards unanimously pick new district superintendents

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It’s Y and P.

The Port Townsend School Board and the Chimacum School Board both unanimously picked their finalist for district superintendent at a joint board meeting Saturday.

The finalists were not identified by the boards, and their identities are not being disclosed publicly until a school board meeting planned for Feb. 24.

Instead, the boards voted to choose Candidate Y and Candidate P.

With Saturday’s final board vote to choose a superintendent, the chairs for both school boards will begin contract negotiations with the two finalists.

More detailed background checks will be done, and references will be checked.

The candidates themselves will be told they are the top picks during phone calls planned for 1 p.m. Saturday.

The final selections followed days of Zoom interviews by both school boards and public online Q&A sessions with semi-finalists earlier this week.

“I’m really pleased with the depth of the field of the candidates that we had to choose from,” said Port Townsend Board Member Jennifer James-Wilson.

“But if I have to make a choice, and we do, I would like to move this candidate forward,” she said about Candidate Y. “They best fit the needs of our district at this time.”

Port Townsend Board Chair Nathanael O’Hara agreed.

“I think our community input was pretty unified around this candidate,” he said.

“Moving forward is exciting to me for what this person could bring to our district,” added Port Townsend School Board Member Connie Welch.

The selection of the two finalists for the superintendents’ posts came at the end of an online joint meeting that began with a private three-hour discussion of the candidates.

Port Townsend won the coin flip and got to go first in voting for a candidate after the session reconvened virtually for the public at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.

Chimacum voted to make Candidate P the finalist for the position.

Members of the Chimacum School Board praised the cooperative approach by both districts in joining together to find new leaders for their respective districts.

Chimacum School Board Member Mickey Nagy said the collaborative effort was unprecedented.

“I think it was a growth experience for our board,” added Chimacum School Board Member Kathryn Lamka.

“I think we got to really dig deep and figure out what it is we really want. The candidates were excellent and that made it even harder,” Lamka said. “Digging deep is good.”

“What an awesome pair of candidates that are moving forward,” said Chimacum Board Chair Kristina Mayer.

“It’s just going to be amazing the things they’ll do with the combined districts,” she said.