Sheldon moving forward as new schools superintendent

While the first couple of days were a learning process, Dr. Sandra Sheldon is moving forward in her job as Churchill County’s new superintendent of schools.

“This is my second day and I’m finding drawers,” she said, laughing. “I found out where the file folders are today, so I’m getting better.”

There are some decisions to be made in the immediate future. Among those, three candidates have applied for the Legal Counsel position currently held by Sharla Hales. A decision is expected to be determined at the board of trustees’ next meeting on July 25.

Also, the district’s Human Resource director remains open. Trustees discussed at their last meeting an option of changing the position’s job description to assistant superintendent with H.R. experience.

“Obviously it takes a little time to get up to speed on things,” she said. “I’m going to be meeting with the board and we’re going to have some conversations. Right now, this is a good time to have these issues because it’s summer and so hopefully we can get some of these things taken care of before school starts and have everything in place, so when school starts we are ready to do what we’re supposed to do, and that’s educate kids.”

The search for a new superintendent began in July 2012 when Carolyn Ross submitted her letter of resignation and ended in late March when the board of trustees selected Sheldon from a field of three finalists. School board president Ron Evans has been impressed so far.

“The more I talk to her, the more I realize the board did the right thing in selecting this lady,” he said. “She is very focused on kids and relationships with people, and how we can make this a great school district where everybody works as a team.”

The new superintendent and her husband, Ehman Sheldon, arrived in Fallon on July 4.

“We drove in around 2 o’clock on the Fourth and found the house, got something to eat; our kids from Las Vegas and my brother-in-law and his wife all came up,” she said. “So basically, on the Fourth, what we did was get enough out of the truck so we could sleep and sat on the back patio and watched the fireworks, so that was awfully nice.

“’m looking forward to meeting members of the community and I’d like to set up meetings over the summer to get to know folks. People are welcome to stop by to say hello and introduce themselves and I’ll be going out to meet some of the business leaders in the community to introduce myself and see how we can work together.”