PORT ANGELES — Jane Pryne, a candidate for the superintendent post at Port Angeles School District, said that her experience in both large and small school districts would help her take on the challenges in Port Angeles.
Pryne — who interviewed with the Port Angeles School Board and school staff Wednesday afternoon and answered questions from about 25 members of the public that evening — was the second of the two candidates selected as finalists to replace Gary Cohn, who will leave in June to take up the superintendent job at Everett School District.
“I’ve worked at a district where I, as the superintendent, did everything. I was the food service manager. I was the budget person. I was professional development,” she said.
“I also have worked at a district of 13,000 students.
“I have also worked at the state level and at the college level, so I really know how everything fits together.”
Two districts
Pryne was superintendent of schools in the Continental School District and Marana Unified School District, both located south of Tucson, Ariz.
She now teaches education classes for Northern Arizona University in Tucson.
She received her doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Arizona in Tucson in May 2002, a master’s in special education with an emphasis on learning disabilities in August 1981 and a bachelor’s in elementary education in May 1977.
Ray Terry, superintendent of Beaver County School District in Beaver, Utah, interviewed for the position on Tuesday.
The School Board is expected to make a decision by May 22.
If the board decides not to hire either candidate, then Principled Leadership Consulting — the board’s consultants on the search — will help the district find an interim superintendent for one year and then repeat the search process next year at no additional cost to the district.
Some of the questions that members of the public asked Pryne, and her answers, were:
• What is a misperception of you professionally?
“Sometimes people think I won’t make the tough decisions because I am open and available, and sometimes that is interpreted as me not being willing to make those decisions. But I will.
“We had a situation in Marana where four faculty members at an elementary school were indicted on felony charges.
“During the whole judicial process, they were on paid administrative leave because that is the law, but I had to make a decision to move that principal laterally.
“That threw a lot of people, because they thought that I wouldn’t do that.
“But that was what was best for the parents and the kids, and ultimately she left before the year was over.”
• How would you deal with declining enrollment and the severe budget cuts that must be made?
“Coming from Arizona, we are 50th out of 50 states in how much we spend per student.
“At Marana, we had 13,000 kids and our budget was $56 million — you have about 4,000 students, and yours is about $46 million.
“Everything we have done was on a shoestring budget.
“The decisions the board here are having to make are very difficult.
“Do I have ideas? Yes. Am I willing to share them? Yes, but I need to look at the background and what the policies here are.
“But really, the programs and improvement plans here in Port Angeles, I’m just in awe of what you are able to do, and that should be celebrated.
“I have been promoting your district, and I don’t even live here yet.”
One question from the School Board was:
• Why are you interested in being superintendent in Port Angeles?
Pryne answered:
“The biggest reason is, it is my passion to lead schools. I decided to start looking for a job about six weeks ago, and I decided I wanted to do it in the Northwest.
“I also was looking for a district that wasn’t too big or too small, and Port Angeles just kind of jumped off the page.
“I’ve worked at the college level for about a year, and I found that I was looking for ways to get back involved with the schools, more so than in the college.
“I think I still have something to give back and am not ready to let go of being in a K-12 system.”
A question from both the School Board and the public was:
• How would you address tolerance in schools?
“I treat people like I want to be treated, and I see myself as a role model for that,” Pryne said. “I would expect staff and administrators to be there and to review their tolerance.
“I have a huge problem with people who yell and scream, because their integrity is gone, and the person they are yelling at doesn’t feel like they have any integrity.
“To deal with those types of people, I get calmer and quieter and that usually de-escalates them, and if it doesn’t, then I ask to meet with them at a different time.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
