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DCSD school board offers Szymoniak interim superintendent position

Avery Lill/ KDLG

At their Monday night meeting, the Dillingham City School District board agreed to offer the interim superintendent role to Glen Szymoniak. For the past two years, Szymoniak has been superintendent of the North Pole Borough School District.

On Monday night the school board for the Dillingham City School District voted unanimously to offer the interim superintendent position to Glen Szymoniak. Board member Patty Luckhurst said his experience in school administration swayed her vote for Szymoniak over the other two candidates.

“Glen had some good answers, and he’s been in small districts, and he’s been in small districts in Alaska. He just seemed maybe a little more flexible,” said Luckhurst.

Szymoniak has served as the superintendent for the North Slope Borough School District for the past two school years. For more than two decades, he has held administrative roles in Alaska and Idaho.

The board interviewed Szymoniak and the other candidates at the meeting. During his interview, Szymoniak said that close communication with principals has been vital in his previous superintendent posts.

“We’re having those quality conversations about bringing instruction along with the principals so that they’re doing a quality job of giving feedback to the teacher so that everybody can be at a continuous improvement process.”

He is also enthusiastic to support the educational standards DCSD has in place.

“As far the curriculum and instruction, the thing that I’m most excited about at Dillingham City Schools is you have great Common Core standards. That is one of the model ways to go to get everybody on the same page,” said Syzmoniak.

If Szymoniak accepts the position of interim superintendent, the board anticipates that the contract will be finalized within the week. The interim superintendent will hold the position for the next school year. During that time the Dillingham City School District will search for a permanent superintendent with the assistance of the Association of Alaska School Boards.

The board also voted to approve a contract with outgoing superintendent Danny Frazier. On an as-needed basis he will be a temporary consultant to the interim superintendent.

Contact the author at avery@kdlg.org or 907-842-5281.