Swisher sought Redmond position

Steve Swisher would like to return to Central Oregon. But he will not be a candidate to return to his former job as superintendent of Sisters schools.

Actually, Swisher told The Nugget over the weekend, he might be interested in his old job if the board wanted him and "if they need the kind of help I could provide."

But when he was asked about that possibility on Monday, May 10, Sisters School Board Chairman Glen Lasken answered with a firm: "No."

Why not? Lasken explained: "Well, we've debated that (a possible Swisher candidacy) as a board in executive session and determined that we want to try to get someone new into the circuit."

Whoever that turns out to be will surface by way of the Cascade Consulting Group, the Bellevue, Washington, "headhunting" firm the Sisters board has hired to conduct its latest search. The search became necessary when the current superintendent, Lynn Baker, who was hired only a year ago, announced that he will be leaving at the end of the school year.

The same firm helped with the superintendent search that has just concluded in Redmond. Swisher was in town because he and a colleague, Crook County School Superintendent Gary Peterson, were the two finalists for the Redmond job.

They participated in a series of public events last Thursday through Saturday, culminating in final interviews. Although no formal announcement had been made by press time, the Redmond board was expected Tuesday evening to say that it had chosen Peterson and had reached agreement on terms of a contract.

Peterson, 52, has been the school boss in Prineville since 1999.

He will replace Judy Delahunt, who was hired as a one-year interim superintendent in Redmond last spring after former Superintendent Jerry Colonna won the superintendency in Beaverton.

Although he didn't win the Redmond job, Swisher, 54, doesn't sound unhappy in his current position.

After retiring last year from Sisters, where he had served for six years, he accepted a one-year contract as interim superintendent of the Brookings-Harbor School District on the southern Oregon coast. He said he has enjoyed working there.

Swisher said the Brookings board has given him a new, three-year contract, removing the "interim" from his title. And he got high marks in a recent performance evaluation, falling short only in the category of balancing his personal and professional lives. The board apparently doesn't feel that he takes enough time off.

Even so, the superintendent said his board understands that ultimately, he and his wife, Novella, would like to return to Central Oregon and "consolidate our life."

They still own a house in Tollgate.

Although it appears that reclaiming his former job in Sisters has been foreclosed, the outcome of the Redmond competition will create another superintendent's vacancy in which Swisher might be interested: Crook County School District.

Swisher said that during his Redmond appearances someone asked if he would consider the Crook County position if Peterson won the Redmond competition.

"I told him I might consider it," Swisher said, "but I thought it probably best not to talk about it right then."