Two finalists are moving forward for Creswell’s superintendent position: Sean Gallagher and Michael Johnson.
Gallagher is the current superintendent at Brookings-Harbor School District in Brookings, Ore. He has 20 years of administrative experience in education, including 12 years as a superintendent in Brookings-Harbor and Lake County School Districts. He has a master’s degree in math education from Oregon State University, and he has completed his administrative licensure program at Lewis and Clark College.
Johnson is the current principal at James Monroe Middle School in Eugene, Ore. He has 28 years of administrative experience at all levels of K-12 education. He has a master’s degree from Portland State University in Education; Policy, Foundation and Administration. He completed his administrative licensure program at Lewis and Clark College.
The candidates will come for a ”day in the district” on Tuesday, May 28. The one-day event will start with a debrief in executive session for the board to talk about the background and reference checks, as well as site visits that were made in the weeks prior.
Afterwards, the candidates will separately tour the three schools and meet with community members. The board wanted to make time for the candidates to meet with four specific groups of people, and give them an opportunity to share their feedback with the board. The groups include:
Administrative team – Specifically the Business Manager and building administrators that weren’t on the screening committee;
High school student leadership – Board Director Lacey Risdal said that she would love to see the candidates interact with the students, and Board Director David Eusted added that the board doesn’t normally receive that feedback and it would be valuable;
Community grouping – Specifically ”prominent community members,” Board Director Mike Anderson said, like Bill Spencer and Kathy Thompson, as well as others;
Superintendent Todd Hamilton – The board wanted to have Hamilton’s feedback on the candidates as well, and discussed bringing him into executive session that night before the final deliberations;
Final interviews with the school board will be taking place that afternoon before the public forum that evening. The forum will be an opportunity for the candidates to introduce themselves to the public and explain their interest in Creswell, as well as answer the public’s questions. The forum will start at 6 p.m. in the Creswell Middle School Cafeteria on Tuesday.
After the forum, the board will meet once again in executive session to deliberate.
Steve Kelley, director of board development with Oregon School Boards Association, said he would email the finalized schedule later in the week.
