Trustees select four superintendent finalists

Round one is finished, and after an hour of discussion, the Churchill County School Board voted Friday to move forward with four candidates who are seeking to become superintendent.

The second round is slated for May 5 when trustees, school employees and the community will have an opportunity to know more about the candidates who have applied.

Summer Stephens, who was hired in 2018, announced her resignation earlier this year. Her contract ends June 30, and she and her family are planning to return to her home state of Nebraska.

The four candidates selected to move forward are Blake Cooper, a Fallon native who’s currently the principal of Fernley Intermediate School; Brandon Moeller, Equity & Diversity Education Department assistant director; Derild Parsons, director of Learning and Innovation for the Churchill County School District; and Tim Spencer, principal of Churchill County High School.

Other candidates included Chris Bonn, James Kuzma, Victor Sherbondy, Scott Sparks and Patrick Traynor.

Greg McKenzie, a search consultant who has been working with the school district since February, urged trustees to select their top three candidates, but the school board members insisted on having the four top candidates.

“I would like to see all four come back,” said trustee Matt Hyde.

Trustee Kathryn Whitaker said she disagreed and only wanted three candidates to be considered. McKenzie, though, said one day would work for the four candidates to meet with community and educators and later in the day, trustees will spend an hour with each candidate and then select the finalist. He said the meet-and-greet could be set up as a round-robin format.

“Could you see one of those four as the next superintendent of Churchill County?” asked McKenzie.

Trustees said they could.

McKenzie said the questions would be more specific toward each candidate. Between now and May 5, he said it’s important for the trustees to perform a Google search on each candidate and also complete background checks.

Once a superintendent is selected, the trustees will discuss the hire and contract at a May 11 meeting.

Blake Cooper

Blake Cooper is in his second year as principal of Fernley Intermediate School. He is a 2004 graduate of Churchill County High School.

Cooper began his career as an elementary school teacher in Reno.

Cooper said the last few years have been strange and difficult for the staff because of the coronavirus pandemic. He said the school has been proactive with the Social Emotional Learning program.

Asked about competency-based learning and dual credit course offerings, he said his expertise comes in the elementary grades, but he’s not afraid to learn more about the programs.

“Competency-based learning is not practiced as much in Lyon County,” he said.

Cooper outlined his leadership style and said he’s kind, hardworking, likes meeting people and is a good listener. As a site principal, he’s had experience in working with a budget. He said it’s important to be transparent, and he touted the work of his budget committee.

Cooper said he was impressed with the Churchill County School District’s communication flow from the public information officer. He was impressed the news that is also presented in Spanish.

“I think you’re (Churchill County School District) doing a pretty good job with communication,” he added.

Cooper said being a community leader is important and also important for a superintendent to communicate that at leadership meetings. Although he’s been in school leadership for a short time, he said a principal or superintendent must have a “thick skin.”

Trustees asked Cooper about communication between the superintendent and school board. Cooper said there must be healthy communication with texting, emails, phone calls. He also stressed the importance of the superintendent and trustees working as a team.

As for testing and student improvement, Cooper said students aren’t numbers. Once educators identify a student’s learning needs, he said teachers and counselors must look at intervention.

Cooper was asked what he would do during the first 90 days if hired.

“Why wait?” he asked. “I’ll be out on the first day and also connect with groups, NAS (Naval Air Station Fallon), tribal,” he responded.

He also said mentorships for new employees are important.

Questioning moved from student achievement and communication to safety. He insisted emergency plans must be in place.

If selected as superintendent, Cooper said he would be ready to serve for the “long haul.”

Brandon Moeller

Brandon Moeller, originally from Miles City, Montana, attended UNLV to study criminal justice and psychology before getting his certification in K-12 education and then working in the Clark County School District. His wife is a principal, and they have three children. Moeller has just been accepted to a doctoral program.

Moeller said the culture of a district is important and he has extensive experience, and his area of study has been around working to improve culture at a high level. He was assigned to look at 42 schools in Clark County to assess and change their culture. He also did the same with a Turn Around Zone in Clark County.

“Growth flatlines when culture is not connected,” he said.

Moeller said that he has created a Culturally Inclusive School Analysis that includes three main concerns when analyzing schools: collaboration, collegiality, and self-efficacy among the staff.

“Those are main concerns and it’s been found out when those are working then the whole staff will do well and the students will do well,” he added.

In relation to dealing with underperforming staff, Moeller said there are two factors; will or skill. With will it is an issue of motivation and getting back to the person’s “why” and with skill, often times the person doesn’t have the tools so they are discouraged and it is a matter of getting the person the training they need to be successful.

Addressing the issue of performance and the trauma of the past three years of COVID, Moeller said he has been working with the American Institute of Research and the Nevada Department of Education with a Social Emotional Assessment to survey students and assess where they are and what questions can be asked to get more data.

He said he does not have much experience with Competency Based Learning but has experience with credit retrieval and designing pathways in middle school that eventually lead to less credit deficiencies.

Moeller said his leadership style is authentic servitude.

“I’m very much about telling the truth and being straight forward,” he said.

Building connections and moving big projects require pulling in various interests and focusing on students. He said he is highly organized and has been told his weakness is he cares too much and works too hard.

In terms of budgeting Moeller said he would have to know what the money and resources are and always ensure that funding to students is the end goal.

Moeller has worked on designing a Critical Response to Hate Motivated Behavior, and worked with others to make sure the components were put together to help student safety.

Derild Parsons

Derild Parsons is the director of Learning and Innovation for the Churchill County School District and the principal of Northside Early Learning Center. He has been with the district for 25 years.

Growing up in Battle Mountain and completing his college education from Fallon while establishing his family with his wife Lynn Adams, Parsons expressed during his interview on Friday a deep appreciation for the Fallon community.

Parsons has worked to develop multi-tiered systems of support for staff and students after the three years of COVID impact, to bring health and mental health support for the district. He is working to get Social Emotional endorsement for all staff as well as applying for a Building Safer Communities grant.

“The day the schools were on lockdown, even though at the end we knew there was no actual threat, the students didn’t know during that time, and it triggers mental health and impacts them, both students and staff,” he said.

In relation to competency based learning and dual credit, Parsons has experience at the high school as well as his experience at the elementary level.

In terms of budgeting, Parsons said it is a challenge to maintain and develop a budget with unknown funds. “The key is to keep in mind the strategic plan and continually assess everything we spend,” he said.

Prioritizing is Parsons’ key, and he said each school is different, and it’s important to talk to parents and staff at each building and see what their priorities are.

Answering a question about the strategic plan, Parsons said the existing strategic plan is good, but it needs to be looked at, with staff involvement to reset some of the goals and objectives.

Addressing student achievement, Parsons said we need to see an increase in improvement. He said we need to have the tools and curricula available to teachers that they need and work with them to make sure they can meet standards.

Parsons said that the superintendent and board are a unit that works together.

Tim Spencer

Tim Spencer of Fallon has been in education for 25 years with a background in technology and Career and Technical Education. He is currently the principal at Churchill County High School.

Spencer considers himself to be a servant leader who gets and provides everything he can for the people he works with. He also said that he is a collaborator, a teammate who leads by example and provides leadership opportunities for others to grow.

“My one and only goal is to create an environment that's best for students and that's how I make all of my decisions,” he said.

To generate a significant improvement in student achievement scores, Spencer would employ the five levels of Dr. Robert Marzano’s High Reliability Organization framework. This system would also be used to support staff accountability and assist with generating high-quality evaluations.

Spencer’s preferred approach to building a budget is to first ensure the district’s goals are in line with the available finances, then to analyze and revise the budget in real time rather than only a few times a year.

Because of a couple of incidents involving lockdowns at the high school this year, Spencer has already been working with experts to redesign the safety protocols at the school. As superintendent, he would ensure that any applicable changes and lessons learned would be carried over district-wide.

To support the students’ mental and emotional health the CARE program that has been successfully implemented in the high school would be brought to all of the schools.

If selected, and within his first 90 days Spencer said he would work to identify the desires of the students, staff, parents and others, and also find areas where there are inefficiencies, lack of processes and communication gaps. He would also start to apply the HRO principles where appropriate.

In his final statement to the board Spencer said, “I’m a believer in what we’re doing here in our community. This is the place that’s the biggest and the best.”

The reporting on the search for a new Churchill County School District has been a collaborative project of the Lahontan Valley News and The Fallon Post. Contributing to the reporting has been Sara Dowling, Rachel Dahl and Steve Ranson.