Brakes on Bellevue Superintendent Search? Enfield Offered Highline Position

Update: 10:30 a.m. Feb 28: Susan Enfield announced that she will accept the job at the Highline School District.

Original story (Feb. 27):

Interim Seattle Superintendent Susan Enfield, whose application to head the Bellevue School District was put on a fast track, was offered the top job at the Highline School District Monday night, possibly slowing down Bellevue's superintendent search.

The Highline School District announced on its website Monday (Feb. 27) that it had offered Enfield the position of superintendent, pending an agreement on a contract. The Highline district, which is in Burien, scheduled a press conference for Tuesday.

Bellevue was poised to start interviewing Enfield as early as next Monday, but whatever Highline announces formally on Tuesday will have an impact on that schedule, board members said.

Highline's announcement came as the , who was a finalist in Bellevue three years ago when the district chose Amalia Cudeiro to replace Mike Riley.

to care for her terminally ill mother in California.

The with Enfield because of the Highline district's interest in her, with board member Steve McConnell voting against and board member Christine Chew abstaining.

Board president Paul Mills said that even if Enfield is no longer a candidate, all the work that the board and the community have done will not be lost, as the district has started to assemble a community group to assess the candidates, has developed a three-day plan for interviewing candidates, and has started work on a list of questions.

"All the work we've done now with the process is dynamite going forward," Mills said. "Should we have to, we've already done the heavy lifting in going forward in a search."

However, Mills said that if Enfield is no longer a candidate in Bellevue, then the district may have to consider having a search over an extended period of time, with the district being led by an interim superintendent, who currently is Eva Collins, the district's assistant superintendent for Instructional Services and School Support.

"A lot of what we've heard and what we've seen from people is, 'Make it national,' " Mills said.

The district has received seven applications so far from all across the country, but the district has not yet done background and reference checks on any applicant other than Enfield, who was vetted in 2009, Mills said, which may necessitate the hiring of a search firm.