{"id":807521,"date":"2020-05-16T19:10:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-17T01:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=383476"},"modified":"2020-05-16T19:10:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-17T01:10:00","slug":"summit-board-of-education-stakeholders-mull-5-superintendent-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/summit-board-of-education-stakeholders-mull-5-superintendent-candidates\/","title":{"rendered":"Summit board of education, stakeholders mull 5 superintendent candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/05\/Superintendent-SDN-051720-1024x640.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/05\/Superintendent-SDN-051720-1024x640.png 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/05\/Superintendent-SDN-051720-300x188.png 300w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/05\/Superintendent-SDN-051720-768x480.png 768w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/05\/Superintendent-SDN-051720.png 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><\/p><figcaption><strong>Summit School District superintendent candidate Dawn Pare interviews with the district board of education on Friday via Zoom teleconference.<\/strong><br \/><em>Antonio Olivero \/ aolivero@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>DILLON \u2014 The Summit School District board of education and dozens of stakeholders this week undertook an extensive process in its attempt to hire the district\u2019s next superintendent.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday and Friday district officials spent more than 10 hours in Zoom video-conference board meetings interviewing five candidates and consulting with stakeholders that included teachers, district staff, students and community members. The district plans to make a selection on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The board asked each of the candidates a total of 21 questions focused around the topics of leadership, communication, diversity, vision and visibility. The candidates the board interviewed were <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1-h4wyZMXhtQiBIHzgU82HFG02rnqdICD\/view\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Thomas Heald<\/a>, the current interim superintendent for the Aspen School District; <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1rzr0hx8W7mnq7qrYB-3t3FUqJTXYFiMb\/view\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matthew Flores<\/a>, the current chief academic officer for Jefferson County Public Schools; <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/16JhJgABlfT4J2osQkdzGmlN5w9MJJnRt\/view\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tammy Clementi<\/a>, a national director of academic planning and analytics for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1lCV3r3mPSXs5OpoxGUxXFn9vTa1Eupsn\/view\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marion Smith Jr.<\/a>, most recently the chief operating &amp; education officer for TechSmart Inc. in Seattle; and <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1O6CRdSxUwmvwC11dfXINZpMtajvPz6-q\/view\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dawn Pare<\/a>, the current chief academic officer for the Weld RE-1 School District in Gilcrest.<\/p>\n<h4>Thomas Heald<\/h4>\n<p>Heald said as an administrator he asks two questions: Why do we do this? Why do we do this this way? He said that simple approach has opened doors for collaboration \u201cin the most unlikely of places,\u201d while creating trust and setting a foundation for collective impact and innovation, such as what he said was an improved and aligned mental health system in Pitkin County.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row sd-donation sd-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/SDN-logo-white-1.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/SDN-logo-white-1.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>When asked how he would assess district sacrifices due to looming state budget cuts to public education amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, Heald said budgetary decisions should be filtered through the district and community\u2019s values, attempting to not be steered too much by the \u201ctyranny of the urgent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Heald also pointed to the work he\u2019s currently doing with the Aspen district discussing the possibilities of a 20% reduction in public education funds and getting a jump-start on saving money by considering attrition with retiring positions.<\/p>\n<p>Pointing to how 85% of Summit\u2019s district budget is for salary and benefits, Heald acknowledged the cost is likely to come back at some point to personnel. He further suggested the Summit board form a COVID committee specific to assessing the budget and other ramifications.<\/p>\n<h4>Matthew Flores<\/h4>\n<p>Flores championed his belief that \u201cinformation is only the beginning of what students need to learn.\u201d He expressed his appreciation for the Summit district\u2019s emphasis on applied learning, such as dual-language and inquiry-based instruction and highlighted his award-winning efforts to build student-internships with local employers in Jefferson County and his work with the state board of education to develop alternative accountability measures of state accreditation.<\/p>\n<p>In response to the budget question, Flores said with the news Tuesday to expect a $3.3 billion reduction to the state budget, he also said any cuts should be assessed by the district\u2019s values.<\/p>\n<p>He said he wouldn\u2019t consider layoffs this spring or summer and pointed to the Summit district\u2019s reserve funds and considered this as a time to use that to retain workforce and having a discussion with the community on any personnel cuts next fall. Flores also pointed to the variable of 60% of the district\u2019s budget coming from property taxes and future uncertainties there when it came to valuations.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em><strong>WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEWS<\/strong><\/em><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitk12.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Go to the Summit School District website<\/a> to watch the full interviews with each candidate as well as the feedback conversation with almost 70 community stakeholders.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<h4>Tammy Clementi<\/h4>\n<p>Clementi said her recent work with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt expanded the breadth of her understanding of innovations districts across the county have used to \u201cbeat the odds,\u201d especially during the remote learning situation of COVID-19 which, she said, \u201cwill forever impact how we think about serving our students.\u201d She also pointed to her experience leading districts through tough times, and talked about her time as chief academic officer for Aurora Public Schools after the Aurora theater shooting.<\/p>\n<p>Talking on the budget, Clementi said she\u2019d do her \u201cdarndest\u201d to stay away from classroom cuts. She also said she has a proposal for Summit School District in terms of a COVID-19 model, saying there are things that are going to be added to the budget \u201cthat haven\u2019t been there before,\u201d such as sanitizer, face masks, temperature checks and increased cleaning and custodial services.<\/p>\n<h4>Marion Smith Jr.<\/h4>\n<p>Smith singled out his experience with racial-equity leadership and student-centric strategies to close achievement gaps in educational communities diverse in ethnicity, linguistics, culture and socioeconomies. He also emphasized his work with diverse and \u201cpolitically-attentive\u201d stakeholders to navigate what he described as \u201cthe business of education,\u201d priding himself on working on the national level on topics such as racial equity, adaptive leadership, systems thinking and culturally-responsive pedagogy and andragogy, among others.<\/p>\n<p>To the budget question, Smith said a school\u2019s budget is a \u201cmoral\u201d document that reflects what the district believes is important.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFollow the money,\u201d he said, though he added he believes state funding is \u201carchaic in the ways its allocated\u201d and often doesn\u2019t meet the needs of students and the district.<\/p>\n<p>He also said he believes COVID-19 has shined a light on inequities in budgeting and pledged he would preserve \u201canything that directly impacts students in the schoolhouse.\u201d Smith added he would cultivate a \u201crobust\u201d data-collection system to understand what\u2019s working and what\u2019s not in the district and consider options such as flexible staffing, renegotiating deals on supplies and finding inefficiencies.<\/p>\n<h4>Dawn Pare<\/h4>\n<p>Pare emphasized she believes her passion is what separates her from other candidates, fueling her work in similar mountain communities such as Eagle County, where she devoted a large amount of time to coaching teachers and professional development. She also touted her work developing a strategic statewide plan revising the teacher rubric, simplifying it and halving it in size to reduce stress and burden on principals and teachers. She said these changes encouraged instructor creativity and passion.<\/p>\n<p>For the budget, Pare said the district immediately needs to keep a keen eye on property tax returns, pointing to how her current county is only at 10% compared to 40% in most years. She added she\u2019d suggest working directly with principals and teachers to have them help think about a percentage cut from every department, saying there is nothing worse than making some cuts that teachers don\u2019t have any input on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we\u2019re asking our kids to be innovative and creative,\u201d Pare said, \u201cwe\u2019re going to have to be innovative and creative too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/summit-board-of-education-stakeholders-mull-5-superintendent-candidates\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Summit School District superintendent candidate Dawn Pare interviews with the district board of education on Friday via Zoom teleconference.Antonio Olivero \/ aolivero@summitdaily.com DILLON \u2014 The Summit School District board of education and dozens of stakeholders this week undertook an extensive process in its attempt to hire the district\u2019s next superintendent. On Thursday and Friday district [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-807521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-10 21:08:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}