Camas School Board interviews top 4 superintendent candidates

Camasonians have one more chance to weigh in on the Camas School District’s hunt for a new schools superintendent.

Videos of the school district’s top four superintendent candidates are available for viewing at the district website (camas.wednet.edu) and the public can fill out an online survey through 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3. School board members will consider the public surveys before making their final decision.

Camas School Board President Tracey Malone said many community members reached out to the school board following the board’s Nov. 17 announcement that it had selected four candidates from a pool of 17 applicants.

“Community members are already doing their own research,” Malone said during the school board’s Nov. 22 meeting. “We know that this is the biggest decision we make as a board, and we are not taking it lightly.”

Board members have said they expect to decide on a new superintendent during the week of Dec. 13, but Malone said on Nov. 22, that board members “won’t make a decision if (they are) not ready.”

The school board, as well as a select group of staff, students, parents and community members had a chance to meet with each of the four superintendent candidates earlier this week, on Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, and board members could travel to the candidates’ home school districts next week, if they need more information, Malone said.

Former Camas School District Superintendent Jeff Snell, who had led the Camas School District for the past decade — as deputy superintendent from 2011 to 2016 and as superintendent from 2016 through 2021 — left the district in July 2021 to become superintendent of the nearby Vancouver Public Schools.

The Camas School Board appointed the district’s director of elementary education, Doug Hood, to act as interim superintendent for the 2021-22 school year, and hired consultants from McPherson & Jacobson to conduct a nationwide superintendent search.

The consultants, along with school board members, gathered public input throughout the superintendent search — hosting in-person “listening posts” in September; opening an online ThoughtExchange that drew nearly 400 participants in October; and meeting with 10 different stakeholder groups, including Camas students, staff, teachers and other community members.

On Nov. 16, the school board met with McPherson & Jacobson consultants to review a list of the top seven candidates the consultants had selected from a list of 17 applicants.

The board narrowed the list to its top four contenders, including:

• Charlene Williams, who has served as the Camas School District’s assistant superintendent since 2016;
• John Anzalone, an assistant superintendent of education services for the 320,000-student Clark County School District in Las Vegas, Nevada;
• Heidi Harris, an assistant superintendent of student learning at the 17,065-student Auburn School District in Auburn, Washington; and
• Michelle Kuss-Cybula, the superintendent of the 849-student Cle Elum-Roslyn School District in Cle Elum, Washington.

To view interviews with each of the four candidates and fill out an online feedback survey, visit camas.wednet.edu/about-csd/2021-superintendent-search. The deadline to fill out the survey is 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3.