Evergreen Public Schools names Christine Moloney permanent superintendent

Evergreen Public Schools’ interim superintendent will move into the role permanently, the school board announced at its Tuesday meeting.

Christine Moloney’s appointment received unanimous support from Evergreen school board members, who interviewed 29 candidates from 12 states across the country. Moloney is the first woman in Evergreen’s history to lead the district.

Board members also unanimously approved a three-year contract with Moloney that begins July 1, with an annual salary of $310,450.

“My goals and priorities are the goals and priorities of the board, which is to continue to put into action a strategic plan and belonging for each and success for all,” Moloney told The Columbian. “I’m looking forward to, in the next three years, building on what we’ve already started together.”

Moloney’s mother, husband and son, who’s a Mountain View High School student, accompanied her at Tuesday’s meeting. Her daughter joined the meeting from college via Zoom.

Each school board member expressed how impressive Moloney’s initiatives have been since she took over as interim superintendent last summer.

“She leads with integrity. She puts students first. She is knowledgeable, and she’s made so many connections,” board President Jacqueline Weatherspoon told The Columbian. “Our finalists were amazing, but Dr. Moloney — she rose to the top.”

The other finalist was former Hawaii State Department of Education Superintendent Christina Kishimoto, a part-time professor and founder and CEO of Voice4Equity, an organization advocating for women and leaders of color.

Evergreen has been in search of a superintendent since John Boyd retired in June after two years in the job. In July, the district’s board members appointed Moloney as the interim superintendent to replace Boyd.

“Dr. Moloney has been exemplary, I feel, in her work in the last eight months, and she’s also been busy repairing some very badly damaged relationships,” board member Gary Wilson said at the meeting.

Under Moloney’s leadership, Evergreen passed both its levies Feb. 11. She’s responded to special education needs and implemented systemic improvements, according to a biography cited in a district news release.

Board member Ginny Gronwoldt said she was blown away by Moloney’s work this year and her responses in the superintendent interviews. The board gave candidates a writing prompt asking them how they would move the district forward.

“She came to the interview with the checklist she’s been using over the time she’s been here, but with more guidance that was really geared to Evergreen, not just the system in general,” Gronwoldt said.

Moloney’s a lifetime Washington resident from Sunnyside. Before she moved to Vancouver, she had several years of experience as a principal, classroom teacher and district administrator in Puyallup, Bethel and Franklin Pierce school districts, and eventually as superintendent of the Chehalis School District for four years.

She said she loved her time in Chehalis and was able to lead the district through the pandemic, but she missed working in larger school districts and started looking around.

The Chehalis district, with 3,000 students, is much smaller than Evergreen, which has almost 22,000 students.

Moloney described the Evergreen superintendent position as a “dream job.”

“What they were looking for in their next superintendent, I felt, was a perfect marriage of my values and who I am as a leader and the skills I bring to this role — particularly around leadership, relationship building and improving academic success for all students, and particularly marginalized populations as well,” Moloney said.

The finalists participated in a public meet-and-greet March 12. The next day, the finalists went through one last interview with the board before the final decision was made.

“I do want to thank everyone who was a part of our process,” Weatherspoon said. “I think we’ve made a really great choice.”