SEQUIM — Ann Renker, who has served as interim assistant superintendent of the Sequim School District since July 1, has been chosen to fill the position permanently.
The permanent status for Renker, 58 — a part-time Sequim resident who also has a home on the West End — became effective Monday.
Renker will earn about $118,000 annually in the position, she said, just as she earned as interim assistant superintendent.
Renker succeeds Gary Neal, 58, who was promoted to district superintendent this year after Patrick Kelly Shea, the former superintendent, left June 30 to become superintendent of the East Valley School District in Spokane Valley.
“It is exciting, it’s invigorating, but at the same time it is validating that the work I have been doing since July has been resonating with the stakeholders here within the district,” Renker said Friday.
“I am really looking forward to continuing to make contributions to be able to keep improving student achievement, which of course has to be the focus of every school district.”
Renker, a native of Bethpage, Long Island, New York, holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Fordham University of New York City, and a doctorate in anthropology from American University of Washington, D.C.
She moved to Neah Bay in 1980 to work with the Makah tribe in their language restoration and revitalization efforts, she said.
It “was very rewarding work, absolutely to be sure,” she said.
She taught English as a second language teacher at the Cape Flattery schools, and in June 2005 became principal for Neah Bay High School and Markishtum Middle School, a position she held through June 2014.
In January 2014, she became a leadership coach for Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction — Office of Student and School Success — a position she held through June 2015.
“They were sending me to struggling schools all over the state — schools that were designated by the state and federal protocols for needing assistance in terms of some of their practices to help student achievement,” she said.
During the 2014-15 school year, she worked at Sequim Middle school.
“Sequim Middle school is in federal and state focus status . . . which means that [it] needs to work to improve its outcomes, specifically for its students with disabilities,” she said.
“That is how I got to know everybody and was one of the pieces that motivated me to apply for this job when it became available.”
In her position as assistant superintendent, she will work to help the district better “be able to help students maximize their learning potential and be able to help facilitate for them and their families the plans that each student has when they leave our schools,” she said.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
