Haines school board president Michelle Sloper said they’ve narrowed their superintendent search down to two candidates from a pool of nine.
The school board has been looking for a replacement for Roy Getchell since October when he announced that he would be leaving his post at the end of the school year.
Those finalists are current principal Lilly Boron and Yupiit School District director of special programs Kary DelSignore, both of whom have decades of experience in education.
According to her resume, Boron’s professional education career started at the Covenant Life Center School in 1993 where she taught high school English and art classes. She did a six-year stint at the Legislative Affairs Agency for the state before landing at Haines High School where she started in 1999 as the high school computer and English teacher. Boron taught at the Haines school for 21 years before becoming its principal in 2020.
Boron got her Bachelor’s Degree in English at Covenant Life College in 1994, her Masters in teaching at the University of Alaska Southeast, a graduate certificate in educational leadership in 2020 from UAA and a Superintendent Graduate Certificate in June of 2024 from UAS.
Among her letters of recommendation include one from current superintendent Roy Getchell who called her an “exceptional” leader who is well-qualified to manage both immediate crises and the long term needs of the community.
DelSignore, who currently lives in Akiachak, started her professional career as a kindergarten teacher in Roseville, California in 1990, according to her resume.
She worked as an early childhood director in a school district in California, before spending eight years working as a preschool director and then a youth education director at two churches in Texas. She first moved to Alaska in August of 2008 and was the principal in the Lake and Peninsula School District through 2013. She left for Tennessee, but later moved back to work as the special education teacher in Tuluksak in Nov. 2019. She has been the special education and assessment director at the Yupiit school district since 2020.
DelSignore got her Bachelor’s in liberal studies from California State University in Sacramento, in 1989. She went back there for a Master’s in educational administration in 1997. In 2012 she got her certificate to teach special education from the University of Alaska Southeast and her superintendent certification from UAS in 2022.
DelSignore was a finalist for the Chatham School District’s superintendent position in 2022. That district contains the Klukwan School, in addition to the schools in Angoon, Gustavus and Tenakee Springs. The Chatham board instead chose current superintendent Ralph Watkins.
Their full applications are available for review in the school district office where the school board is also taking written feedback on the candidates.
Haines residents will have two opportunities to meet and hear from the finalists in the coming week, one at a community reception on Dec. 16 from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Haines School library. The second, during formal 60-minute interviews on Dec. 17, starting at 5:30 p.m. at the Haines School library.