After a busy summer, Wallowa’s new school superintendent settles into job
Published 3:00 pm Thursday, August 29, 2024
- Stacy Knudson, the new superintendent of the Wallowa School District, comes to Wallowa from a similar job with the Eddyville Charter School in Western Oregon.
Summer has been no vacation for the Wallowa School District’s new superintendent, Stacy Knudson.
At her arrival two months ago, she immediately joined the faculty in a project underway to advance early intervention with struggling students and manage behavior, “and we’ve just been going full speed since then,” she said in an interview.
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There were campus tours, get-acquainted meetings with teachers and interviews to fill teacher and support staff vacancies. Then, unexpectedly, room had to be found for the Oregon Department of Forestry to use as command headquarters to fight the Winding Waters Complex of wildfires in the area. (ODF’s incident commander was Matt Howard, who also chairs the Wallowa School Board.)
All the while, construction crews had been doing major renovations on the high school-middle school and elementary school buildings, primarily replacing heating and air conditioning systems. The summerlong work ran late, forcing the start of the 2024-25 school year to be delayed by a week to Tuesday, Sept. 3.
The district had gone two years without a permanent superintendent, who serves also as principal of the elementary school. Among three finalists, the school board tapped Knudson, who had been superintendent and elementary principal of remote Eddyville Charter School in Lincoln County between Newport and Corvallis.
“There are some similarities — it’s a small rural school in a close-knit community where the school is the heart of the community,” she said. “I would say that this community also is very dedicated to the success of our students and the school.” To that end, the district already had its usual open house Aug. 29 and Knudson is open to meeting with any parent.
She is expanding that link with a monthly “coffee with the superintendent” session off school grounds. At the first one Aug. 20 at Buttercup Brew in downtown Wallowa, five adults and three students showed up, asking what she described as “all kinds of things. Some wanted to know about the new CTE outdoor learning lab and others asked about new programs.”
“It just gives us another venue that doesn’t feel as intimidating,” she said of the off-site meetings. “I think it’s awkward if you’re not around the schools and working in them. Also, we’re building relationships with the community and bringing business to a local business.”
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New this year are a cooking and canning program and a Lego robotics class. Also, after a year’s hiatus, the music program has returned, led by one of four new teachers.
Also, parents are looking for opportunities to be involved as volunteers and they would like more communication in advance of the start of school, she noted.
Knudson has three children, a daughter in college, another daughter entering eighth grade and a son going into sixth grade. The kids commute with her from La Grande, where she has settled.
An educator for 23 years after graduation from Oregon State University, Knudson has honed her professional philosophy.
“We are here to serve students, help develop their passion and provide them with the skills, ability and knowledge to be successful in life,” she said. “It’s beyond their profession. It’s how they treat people, how they treat themselves, how they interact and how they are responsible citizens.”
For many students, sports is an important factor, she said. “I was an athlete. I played volleyball, basketball and track. I found much value,” she explained. “The grit, the perseverance, the teamwork, making yourself better than you were yesterday are life skills that can be found in athletics but also on robotics teams, in music and in whatever organization you’re a part of.”