The Washoe County School District is about halfway done with the candidates' interview process in search of their new superintendent.
They gave the community an opportunity to get to know the five finalists at their 'Meet 'n Greet" event on Thursday.
The school board has chosen candidates both locally and from outside the area. Those candidates explained their past experiences with education and why our community should consider them for superintendent.
"I've been in the Washoe County School District for over 25 years," said candidate Joseph Ernst. "I've had the opportunity to serve as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, area superintendent, and currently chief continuum improvement officer."
"I was superintendent at Tuscon Unified, then I went on to Douglas County, Colorado, which is a district about 67,000 students, and currently I serve as superintendent at Humble which is at Houston, Texas really," said candidate Elizabeth Fagen.
Some of the top priorities many of the candidates collectively share is building safety, improving learning outcomes, and increasing longevity of the position.
"My purpose is to improve student learning outcomes," said candidate Troy Parks. "So how we would go about that is every teacher, every school, we want them to undergo a training which often is called learning clarity or teacher clarity."
Some candidates also want to work toward strengthening the relationship between the community and the school district to better focus on helping our students.
"I'm a less is more guy," said candidate Charles McNulty. "You do what you do really well, but you also include student voice, teacher voice and family voice in the decision making. You have to get people to feel like they're a participant in their own education."
"The strength of our schools is dependent on the strength of our community and the strength of our community is dependent on the strength of our schools, and so we need together to build the system our kids deserve," said candidate Paul LaMarca.
Tomorrow candidates will attend a special meeting with the trustees and the public is also invited to that.
