Trustees offer superintendent position to Dr. Sandra Sheldon

Dr. Sandra Sheldon has been offered an opportunity to become Churchill County’s next school superintendent.

CCSD Trustees voted 7-0 Thursday night during their regularly scheduled meeting to offer the position to a candidate who currently serves as superintendent of the Warden School District in Warden, Wash.

After two days of extensive interviews involving Jose Delfin, Edna LaMarca and Sheldon, trustees decided no delay was needed. In fact, the item was pushed to the top of the meeting agenda and after about 20 minutes of deliberation, Trustee Clay Hendrix made a motion to offer the position to Sheldon.

“At first, before those last interviews, I thought we would want to think about it,” said Ron Evans, board president. “But at least from my perspective, it was very clear that Dr. Sheldon was the top candidate.”

Evans said he was at the district office at 8 a.m. to call and inform Sheldon of the decision.

“We’ve offered her the job, and she’s accepted, now it’s just pending working out the terms of the contract,” he said, noting more discussion is on the agenda for the trustees’ next meeting this coming Thursday night.

Since time will be needed to review details of the contract, a final announcement is not expected at that time, Evans added.

“Dr. Sheldon is an excellent choice,” said Steve Nunn, the board’s vice-president. “All three candidates had wonderful interviews, but she has a multitude of experience and I believe she is the best fit for us.”

Sheldon said she is excited to have this new opportunity.

“I really enjoyed meeting the board members, I think they all want what’s best for the Churchill County School District,” she said. “So we’ll get in there and see what we can put together.”

Likewise, Sheldon left a favorable impression with trustees both nights.

“All of the board members were impressed with her interview,” Nunn said. “She is someone who has the ability to focus on the job at hand and her personnel at the same time. She views our district as a team and that falls directly in line with the Board’s beliefs.”

One of the key moments, according to Evans, came Tuesday night when Sheldon responded to a question about leadership style.

“We asked, ‘Is your management style that you lead from the top down or from the bottom up?’ And her response was that she leads from the heart out ... that it’s critical that trust and relationships you build with people determines how successful you are,” Evans said.

Trustee Nona McFarlane explained she was prepared to make her decision before the start of the board meeting Thursday.

“I liked her because she said she believed in teamwork and it wasn’t a team of all administrators or directors,” McFarlane said. “It was of all employees in the school district and I think that’s really important.”

While the new superintendent is scheduled to be on the job July 1, Sheldon has indicated she hopes to return to Fallon in May.

“I’d just like to have time to sit down with the principals and have a little bit of time to introduce myself and learn a little bit about them before I get there (on July 1) and everybody is heading out for summer vacation,” she said. “It’s up to the board, but if we could work that out, I think it would be a good thing to do.”