SEQUIM — Ann Renker, assistant superintendent for the Sequim School District, is resigning her position at the end of this month.
Renker is stepping down from the No. 2 administration role after “a family medical situation has prompted [her] to make this difficult decision,” according to a statement from the district.
Renker joined the school district in 2015 as interim assistant superintendent of teaching and learning before the position was renamed.
“I have enjoyed my work in Sequim and will leave a little of my heart here when I go,” Renker said in the statement.
“I simply know that I’ll need a lot of flexibility to provide assistance to my family when it’s needed, and you just can’t do this job justice unless you can be 100 percent dedicated and available when staff and students need you.”
Because of the timing of Renker’s announcement, the Sequim School Board is considering the possibility of filling the position on an interim basis, district officials said this week.
Sequim staff will look to Educational Service District 114 to provide educational services while Renker’s position remains open, district officials said this week.
Superintendent Gary Neal said Renker will be missed.
“Ann helped bring our school district into compliance in a number of challenging areas, and she brought a fresh perspective that helped move our curricular program forward in important ways,” Neal said.
“We are going to miss her wisdom and her innovation, but we are better as a system for having had her here while we did.”
Renker described herself as a “change agent” after years of changing the education culture on Clallam County’s West End for the better part of two decades.
Prior to her Sequim position, she worked for 20 years with the Cape Flattery School District and spent a year working as a leadership coach with the state’s Office of Student and School Success.
In 1993, Renker joined the Cape Flattery School District as an ESL (English as a second language) teacher and bilingual coordinator, ensuring students had opportunities to study Makah language and culture.
She spent the next 20 years with the district, the past nine as secondary school principal for Neah Bay’s Markishtum Middle School and Neah Bay High School that serve the Makah Indian Reservation.
For the 2014-15 school year, Renker worked within a division of the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction as a leadership coach, including some time working with some staff and administrators at Sequim Middle School.
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Michael Dashiell is the editor of the Sequim Gazette of the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which also is composed of other Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News and Forks Forum. Reach him at editor@sequimgazette.com.
