Ketchikan board names two superintendent finalists, sets May in-person interviews and public forums

The Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District Board of Education on May 14 voted to advance two candidates, Scott Huff and Donald McPherson, as finalists in its superintendent search and invited them to on-site interviews and public engagement in Ketchikan on May 27–28, 2025.

The action followed an executive session called under board policy 9321 to discuss superintendent applicants. The board told the public it took no action while in executive session and then voted 6–0 to name the two finalists and proceed with the next phase of the search.

Katie Oliver, executive director of the Alaska Association of School Boards (AASB), who is assisting the district, outlined a draft schedule the association prepared for the finalists’ visit. “Everything that you’re seeing on your page here is an example and can be customized by the board to meet whatever you think is going to best serve your process and your district in terms of the interview,” Oliver said, describing a day of tours, student and staff forums, focus groups and a public community forum.

Under the draft AASB schedule described at the meeting, one day would be devoted to candidate tours of district facilities, a student lunch or forum, and a set of focus-group sessions with community stakeholders. AASB proposed a staff forum from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., a dinner break, and a community forum from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The second day would be reserved for equal-length interviews with the board (the board would enter executive session for interviews) and subsequent deliberation; AASB recommended roughly 60-minute interviews with time at the end for candidates to ask the board questions.

Oliver said AASB would contact the candidates to confirm their willingness to visit, prepare a press release and put draft surveys in place so community and staff feedback from the forums could be collated and presented to the board on day two. The association also offered to arrange flights for any external candidate and to assist with lodging, local ground transportation and venue reservations.

Board members and staff discussed the composition of focus groups; suggestions included tribal governments, KEA (the teachers’ association), KLO, ELL representatives, vocational partners such as Vigor and University of Alaska Southeast, union leadership and community partners. Board members indicated a preference for three focus groups to broaden participation and discussed using one of the board’s interview time slots for a concurrent, smaller focus group if needed.

The board and AASB also addressed logistics: lodging references (Cape Fox was named), a rented district activities van for candidate transportation, airport pickups and venue reservations at the Ted Ferry Civic Center and district facilities. Staff and AASB agreed to finalize a press release and surveys and to coordinate invitations, tech support and ground transportation.

The board’s formal motion to identify the finalists was made and seconded after the executive session; the roll-call vote shown in the record was recorded as Guthrie, Hewitt, Tabb, Thomas, Guenter and Tatsuta voting yes, resulting in a 6–0 approval.

Next steps: AASB will contact the finalists to confirm travel and schedule, distribute a press release, run staff and community surveys tied to the forums, and provide the board a summary of community input during the second day of interviews.