Community can weigh in on Juneau School District superintendent finalists this week

Members of the community have an opportunity to watch recorded interviews with the three finalists for Juneau superintendent and give feedback to the school board by Thursday. 

Finalists for the Juneau School District’s superintendent position did a round of interviews last week with Steve Lowder, a consultant with national search firm McPherson & Jacobson. In their interviews, each candidate highlighted the importance of building trust with the community and collaborating with staff and local partners.

One finalist is Shawn Arnold, the current principal at Thunder Mountain Middle School. He said it’s important to preserve students’ classroom experience in the wake of limited resources.

“We must continue building a culture where every student feels that they belong, because belonging changes everything,” he said. “Enrollment numbers, they do matter. Budgets matter. But students matter most. If selected, my commitment is to lead with courage, compassion and clarity.”

Kevin Shipley, the current superintendent of Evadale Independent School District in Texas, is another finalist. He formerly worked at Sealaska Heritage Institute as its education director and was a superintendent of Kake City School District. He said the superintendent and district office’s job is to support teachers and principals in the work they do.

“The experts that we have are my teachers. The experts are my principals,” Shipley said. “I sit down and utilize them and ask them, ‘What are we doing? How can we do it better? What are your needs?’ And I create a service environment from the central office where we serve to meet the needs of our staff.”

Former University of Alaska Southeast Dean of Education Carlee Simon is the third finalist. She was previously a superintendent in Florida and was a finalist for the same position in 2023. She said the district should give space for people to process the challenges the district has gone through and to support teachers so they can focus on student learning.

“Sometimes it’s very hard to focus on the work that matters when all of these disruptions are happening outside,” she said. “So what I have always tried to focus on is supporting faculty, staff with creating the environments where they can work in their classroom.”

Full recordings of each interview are available on the district’s website. 

The public will also have an opportunity to meet candidates in person Wednesday at Thunder Mountain Middle School at 6 p.m. Staff members will have a forum with the finalists on Thursday at Thunder Mountain Middle School at 4:30 p.m.

The school board wants to hear feedback on the finalists. The public and district staff can weigh in through Thursday using a survey on the finalists’ strengths and weaknesses.

The Juneau School Board will interview all candidates in a closed session on Thursday afternoon.