The Haines Borough School District could have a new superintendent hired in just a few days.
Three finalists for the job are scheduled to arrive here Monday and a hiring decision is set for a special school board meeting Wednesday afternoon. Community members are invited to meet candidates 7 p.m. Tuesday at the school library.
The slate of finalists shifted this week when finalist Tom Yahraes backed out of the running.
Yahraes’ decision moved Connie Newman, superintendent/principal of Pribilof School District since 2012, into the slot of the third finalist. Newman had been ranked by the school board as their fourth choice from a list of six semi-finalists for the job.
Yahraes, chief executive officer for Big Sky Discovery Academy in Big Sky, Mont., didn’t return a phone call from the CVN, but interim superintendent Rich Carlson said family concerns entered into his decision to decline.
“When he talked to his family, he said, ‘Maybe not,’” Carlson said.
Cold feet at the prospect of moving to Alaska isn’t unusual, Carlson said.
“This happens all the time. I wouldn’t be shocked if it happens yet again. It’s one thing to romanticize about Alaska, but the reality of ‘I’m-pretty-darn-close-to-getting-the job’” makes candidates reconsider, he said.
Yahraes had worked for three years in St. Michael, Alaska, in the early 1990s for the Bering Strait School District.
Newman also worked in Pelican from 2005 to 2012, including as superintendent/principal. She was Chatham School District superintendent from 2002 to 2005 and served as superintendent at four small districts in Montana and Washington.
Newman, Yakutat superintendent Robin Gray and Anthony Habra, a superintendent of Paw Paw Public Schools in Paw Paw, Mich., are scheduled to meet in Juneau and travel by ferry here Monday.
Resumes of finalists are available at the district office. The board will hold in-person interviews with finalists beginning 9 a.m. Wednesday.