Thompson lands San Juan Islands head schools job

Mark Reimers
Tribune reporter

  LYNDEN — Superintendent of the Lynden School District Rick Thompson has been hired for a three-year contract with the San Juan Island School District.
  Effective July 1, Thompson will leave Lynden, following a five-year stint which began in the role of director of curriculum and assessment. In September 2008, Thompson was appointed to replace outgoing superintendent Dennis Carlson. He was then given a one-year contract for the current school year.
  Carlson was dismissed just as the 2008-09 school year started, after allegations of unprofessionalism were partly substantiated by an independent investigation.
  The San Juan district, based in Friday Harbor, extended an invitation to Thompson to apply after he had applied to become superintendent of the Vashon Island School District for 2009-10. The San Juan district’s former superintendent was hired at Vashon and was among those who recommended Thompson to his former district.
  The invitation to Thompson was a targeted one, bypassing a full pool of candidates.
  Thompson, 46, came to Lynden from the Franklin Pierce School District in the Tacoma area, where he worked as a high school principal and assistant superintendent.
  After serving as a high school teacher in Federal Way from 1986 to 1992, Thompson served in principal positions in the Roslyn and Quincy school districts before starting work as an assistant principal at Franklin Pierce High School and then as principal there for six years.
  Thompson said he feels fortunate to have gotten the superintendent experience in Lynden schools.
  “It was helpful to be able to present a philosophy that is based in experience,” Thompson said.
  Thompson said he will miss the relationships he has formed both with citizens in the Lynden Noon Kiwanis Club as well as the teachers in the school district.
  “I can’t say enough about their commitment to students,” Thompson said of the staff of the 2,600-student district.
  He said he also considered it a privilege to have such a good working relationship with local private schools.
  Thompson said he hopes he contributed a measure of stability in a period of transition, which also included a number of difficult tasks, such as a laborious budget process and changes to curriculum and testing standards.
  The San Juan Island School District includes one K-6 grade elementary school and a junior and senior high school on one campus, along with a small school on Stuart Island and a parent partnership program similar to the Lynden Academy.
  The district is working with Dr. Michael Boring of the McPherson & Jacobson firm of Omaha, Neb., in the superintendent search process for Lynden School District.
  The names of the superintendent candidates are confidential until they move to the final stage, said board member Teresa Camfield.
  Boring closed the application period Friday. He said 16 candidates completed applications and he will proceed to study and analyze them in order to present his observations to the Lynden School Board in executive session on March 16.
  Twelve of the candidates are from Washington, two from Nebraska, one from Nevada and one from Puerto Rico, Boring said. From what he has seen so far, four are current superintendents, five others are assistant superintendents or comparable, and three are school principals.
  The vetting process, Boring said, will included contacting references as well as those not listed among references but who might shed light on the candidates.
  Boring said he expects about six candidates to be invited for interviews with the school board, after which a list of three finalists will be made public and invited to participate in a series of public forums and interviews with stakeholders within the district.
Vacancy filled part-time

  LYNDEN — The recent departure of Doug Adelstein from the Lynden School District’s administration is being handled by the hiring of a part-time employee.
  John Kinnee, a retired superintendent from the Conway School District in Skagit County, will serve as director of human resources. However, grants and other related aspects of Adelstein’s job will be carried out in-house by district staff, including Superintendent Rick Thompson.
  Thompson said some of the substantial projects formerly under Adelstein will be put off until a new superintendent is hired.
  Kinney has also served as human resources director for the Mukilteo School District.
  E-mail Mark Reimers at reporter@lyndentribune.com.