Black Butte School welcomes new superintendent

When students came back to Black Butte School in Camp Sherman after winter break last Monday, they were greeted by three new faces. They shook hands with a new superintendent, who is also serving as their principal, as well as a new upper grades teacher and a new lower grades teacher.

The small school in the tiny hamlet on the Metolius River serves about 20 students in grades K-8.

The new interim superintendent/principal Dr. Craig Nikolai has been hired through June 30 of this year and will serve the district on a full-time basis. The job is Nikolai's first superintendency,

although he has been a licensed superintendent for several years.

Nikolai, who is single, has already moved to Camp

Sherman.

"It was very important to me - and this is just my philosophy and it is the philosophy of most boards - that the superintendent live within the community. It was important to me that I live within Camp Sherman if I was to serve this board and the community as best I could," he said. "My goal is to be an integral part of the community."

Nikolai replaces Bill Leininger who was hired on a part-time basis earlier this school year.

"The needs of the district were that they required somebody more full-time in a leadership position," said Nikolai.

According to Nikolai, Black Butte School District #41 has been in transition since the death of teacher Toni Foster in August of 2006. Foster had been carrying out the responsibilities of head teacher, superintendent, and principal, Nikolai said.

"She was doing all of those things, and in her unfortunate passing the board needed very clearly some direction," he added.

Nikolai comes to Camp Sherman from Bermuda where he worked for the government for the last two-and-a-half years designing and implementing the island's first standards-based

assessment and accountability system.

"I was a senior officer in government charged with research, measurement and evaluation," he said.

Prior to his time in Bermuda, Nikolai was the Director of System Performance for the North Clackamas School District near Portland.

"That was assessment, data collection, reporting in terms of No Child Left Behind and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)," he said.

Sisters' new superintendent Elaine Drakulich also previously served as an administrator with the North Clackamas School District.

"Camp Sherman provided me the chance to come back to Oregon where I was desiring to be even after Bermuda. ... Specifically, the opportunity in Camp Sherman for Black Butte provided me the opportunity to get back to a connection with students," said Nikolai.