The Highline School Board has offered the superintendent position to Dr. Susan Enfield, pending successful contract negotiations and a background check. The board is expected to vote at its meeting Wednesday evening to formally approve Enfield for the job. She would start in Highline on July 1.

Dr. Enfield and School Board President Angelica Alvarez will be available to the news media at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow at Highline Public Schools central office. Please contact Catherine Carbone Rogers to make arrangements.

Dr. Enfield is currently the Interim Superintendent for Seattle Public Schools. She came to Seattle as Chief Academic Officer from Evergreen Public Schools in Vancouver, WA where she served as the Deputy Superintendent from 2006 to 2009.

Before moving to Washington, she was the Director of Teaching and Learning for Portland Public Schools where she oversaw curriculum, instruction, federal programs and professional development district-wide.

Prior to coming to Portland, Dr. Enfield served as the Bureau Director for Teaching and Learning Support for the Pennsylvania Department of Education. In this role she worked with legislators, state department and district leaders to develop education policy and implement standards-based curriculum and professional development for over 500 school districts.

She began her career in education as a high school English, ESL and journalism teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area. After seven years in the classroom she joined the UC Berkeley Teaching and Learning Alliance as a high school support provider coaching principals and assisting middle and high school teachers engaged in whole-school, standards-based reform aimed at closing the achievement gap.

Dr. Enfield is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and earned master’s degrees in education from Stanford University and Harvard University. She also earned a doctorate in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from Harvard University with a concentration in the Urban Superintendents Program.

“The school board feels that Dr. Enfield’s skill, passion, and educational leadership will match the expectations we and our communities hold for the children of Highline Public Schools,” says School Board President Angelica Alvarez. “We made our decision after much consideration, and an extensive process involving staff, community members, business leaders and especially parents.”

In making its selection, the school board weighed input from teachers, staff, parents, and community members. Starting last fall, staff and community helped identify the characteristics the new superintendent should possess. ­­The resulting candidate profile was used to recruit and screen applicants. When the candidates were narrowed to three, staff and community had the opportunity to meet and provide feedback on all three finalists. Each candidate answered questions at a staff/community forum, which was televised and streamed on the internet to provide people with multiple opportunities to participate in the process.

Here’s the HPS link to the video of the forum event with Dr. Enfield.

The school board has named three finalists in its search for Highline’s next superintendent. They are:

Dr. Susan Enfield
Dr. David Engle
Dr. Joshua Garcia

Biographical information is posted at www.highlineschools.org.

As part of the interview process, each candidate will spend a full day in Highline, meeting staff, parents, and community members. Each day will culminate in a public forum, where the candidate will answer questions from the audience.

Public forums will be held at the Burien City Council Chambers at 400 SW 152nd Street on February 22, 23, and 24, 6:00 – 7:15 p.m.

People who can’t be present at the forums can watch it live on channel 21 in Burien or on the internet. Viewers will be able to send in questions via email or Twitter. Video of the forums will also be posted online, so people can watch it later.

Each candidate’s day-long visit in Highline will include a breakfast with community leaders; a school visit; meetings with principals, senior leaders, and an advisory committee made up of staff, parents, and community members; and a final interview with the school board. The board will review feedback generated in the public forums and by the other groups who have met the candidate before making a final decision.

The board expects to announce the new superintendent by March 1.

Dr. Enfield’s biographical information is here; the information for Dr. Engle, most recently a superintendent in Nebraska, is here; and for Dr. Garcia, currently assistant superintendent in Federal Way, it’s here. Enfield also is in the running to lead Bellevue’s district, according to our partners at the Seattle Times.

(White Center snow fun photo courtesy of Gill)
UPDATED THURSDAY MORNING:

Highline Public Schools have now announced they’ll be closed Thursday too.

ADDED 8:07 PM: Holy Family School and West Seattle Montessori are closed too.

ADDED THURSDAY 8:29 AM: White Center Food Bank closed.

Most trash pickups around the region are also canceled for today. And King County government is opening late, 10 am.

ADDED THURSDAY 10:29 AM: Via Facebook, we see the White Center CDA office is closed.

We also have received word that the White Center Kiwanis‘s Key Club dinner tonight is postponed – since the school’s closed! We’ll update the calendar listing with the new date (note – that’s 6:30 pm February 16th).

Any other closures/changes, please let us know – whitecenternow@gmail.com or you can call our 24-hour phone line (at West Seattle Blog HQ), 206-293-6302.

Community members, parents, and Highline staff are invited to a program honoring Superintendent John Welch on Wednesday, August 24, 5:00-6:00 p.m. at the school district central office (ERAC) at 15675 Ambaum Blvd SW in Burien.

The event will be “open mic”, giving people an opportunity to make remarks thanking Welch for his work in Highline.

Welch has served as Highline’s superintendent since July 2005. On September 1, he will become the new superintendent of the Puget Sound Educational Service District (PSESD) in Renton. PSESD is a regional educational agency that serves all school districts in King and Pierce counties.