The Central Valley School District this week is interviewing four finalist candidates to replace long-time Superintendent Ben Small.
The candidates will visit school facilities and meet with administrators, teachers and students leaders during the day. They will also take questions from the public from 5:30-7:30 pm at town hall forums in the Central Valley High School theatre (821 S. Sullivan Road).
The first of the four candidates to visit the district on Monday will be Tavis Peterson, the assistant superintendent of the Wapato School District in the Yakima Valley.
On Tuesday, CV will welcome Troy Tornow, who is the assistant superintendent of Educational Service District 123, which serves the Tri-Cities. Tornow is also a finalist for the superintendency at the Selah School District.
On Wednesday, John Parker will visit. Parker has, for the last three years, been the director of innovation at the Colegio Nuevo Granada International School in Bogota, Colombia. Before that, he was an administrator for 13 years in the Puyallup School District.
On Thursday, the final candidate will visit. Oscar Harris is the chief family and community engagement officer at Spokane Public Schools.
If the CV board chooses one of the central Washington candidates, it wouldn’t be the first time the district went after someone from a smaller district in the Evergreen State. Small had been the superintendent at the Columbia School District near Walla Walla when he was chosen to lead the Spokane area district in 2008.
Small announced in January that he would leave Central Valley and look for another opportunity outside of public education in the Spokane area.
