The Petersburg School District believes it’s found a replacement for Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter, who is leaving at the end of the school year. Their top candidate for superintendent will be in Petersburg today Friday, January 12, through Tuesday, January 16, checking out the district and meeting with community members. Robyn Taylor is the only candidate the School Board and hiring committee invited to visit.
School Board President Sarah Holmgrain says that’s unusual.
“In this case, you know, I’ll be honest, there wasn’t anyone else we wanted to invite,” she said.
Taylor has worked for the Petersburg School District before. From 1998-2005, she taught business and history, and coached cross country and basketball at Petersburg High School. And according to Holmgrain, Taylor has been interested in coming back to Petersburg.
She says Taylor’s administrative experience made her stand out in the pool of applicants. She has nearly 20 years of experience as a principal in Alaska, and Holmgrain says that her current position as principal of a smaller career and technical education school in Fairbanks is appealing.
“I think there’s some connections and programs that we don’t have here that might be helpful to the academic side, as well as the core technical side that she’s been involved in that none of us have been here,” she said.
Holmgrain says the board hopes to offer Taylor the position by the end of her visit if things go well. That would make it possible for the board to accept her contract at their regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday night, January 16th.
If the board decides not to go with Taylor, they will restart the hiring process and put out a call for new applicants.
Taylor arrives in Petersburg today. She plans to hold a community meet and greet tomorrow at Glacier Express from 10 a.m. until 11 a.m. On Monday evening she’ll hold another meet and greet in the high school commons from 6:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. And a third meet and greet will be held at the district office on Tuesday morning from 8 a.m. until 9 a.m. All three events are open to parents and community members.
