Inter­im Seat­tle Pub­lic Schools Super­in­ten­dent Susan Enfield, who took over man­age­ment of the state’s largest school dis­trict after the board oust­ed Mon­i­ca Good­loe-John­son back in the spring, announced today that she will “nei­ther seek nor accept” the per­ma­nent posi­tion of super­in­ten­dent, which means she will depart­ing the dis­trict mid­way through 2012 when her cur­rent con­tract expires.

Enfield, who pre­vi­ous­ly served as the dis­tric­t’s chief aca­d­e­m­ic offi­cer, did not elab­o­rate on the rea­son­ing behind her deci­sion, say­ing sim­ply that she was leav­ing for “my own per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al reasons”.

Her announced exit fol­lows the depar­tures of board mem­bers Steve Sundquist and Peter Maier, who vot­ers replaced last month with Mar­ty McLaren and Sharon Peaslee. Incum­bents Sher­ry Carr and Har­i­um Mar­tin-Mor­ris were reelected.

Seat­tle Pub­lic Schools will now like­ly con­duct a nation­al search for a new per­ma­nent super­in­ten­dent, pos­si­bly begin­ning next month. Who­ev­er the board selects will be the dis­tric­t’s fourth leader in half a decade.

Enfield is at least leav­ing on her own terms. Her three pre­de­ces­sors (Joseph Olchefske, Raj Man­has, Maria Good­loe-John­son) were uncer­e­mo­ni­ous­ly shown the door after the com­mu­ni­ty lost con­fi­dence in their abil­i­ty to lead.

Enfield­’s sup­port­ers may lament her depar­ture, but we think it’s an oppor­tu­ni­ty for a fresh start. Seat­tle Pub­lic Schools already has a new­ly reshaped board as a result of the just-con­clud­ed Novem­ber gen­er­al elec­tion. Now it will be get­ting a new chief exec­u­tive as well — some­one who was not part of Maria Good­loe-John­son’s irre­spon­si­ble and unac­count­able administration.

Melis­sa West­brook sug­gest­ed last week that it seems the dis­trict is enter­ing a new era. We cer­tain­ly hope so. The dis­trict needs lead­er­ship that tru­ly lis­tens to par­ents, teach­ers, and espe­cial­ly stu­dents. It needs lead­er­ship that makes thought­ful, well-researched deci­sions backed by com­mu­ni­ty input, not just advice dis­pensed by so-called “edu­ca­tion pro­fes­sion­als”. How about let­ting young peo­ple have a say in what’s best for young peo­ple, for a change? That’s what we’d like to see.

About the author

Andrew Villeneuve is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, as well as the founder of NPI's sibling, the Northwest Progressive Foundation. He has worked to advance progressive causes for over two decades as a strategist, speaker, author, and organizer. Andrew is also a cybersecurity expert, a veteran facilitator, a delegate to the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, and a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

Adjacent posts

Enjoyed what you just read? Make a donation

Thank you for read­ing The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate, the North­west Pro­gres­sive Institute’s jour­nal of world, nation­al, and local politics.

Found­ed in March of 2004, The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate has been help­ing peo­ple through­out the Pacif­ic North­west and beyond make sense of cur­rent events with rig­or­ous analy­sis and thought-pro­vok­ing com­men­tary for more than two decades.

The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate is fund­ed by read­ers like you and trust­ed spon­sors. We don’t accept unso­licit­ed ad buys or pub­lish con­tent in exchange for money.

Help us keep The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate edi­to­ri­al­ly inde­pen­dent and freely avail­able to all by becom­ing a mem­ber of the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute today. Or make a dona­tion to sus­tain our essen­tial research and advo­ca­cy jour­nal­ism. Your con­tri­bu­tion will allow us to con­tin­ue bring­ing you fea­tures like Last Week In Con­gress, live cov­er­age of events like Net­roots Nation or the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion, and reviews of books and doc­u­men­tary films.

Become an NPI mem­ber Make a one-time donation