Johnson named Crook County schools superintendent

The Crook County School District Board of Directors announced Wednesday it has chosen Dr. Sara E. Johnson as the district’s next superintendent, effective on July 1, succeeding current Superintendent Duane Yecha.

The school board and Johnson are working on the terms of a tentative agreement which will be finalized at a public meeting on Thursday, April 5, the district said in its announcement.

“We had an outstanding field of 26 candidates for the superintendent position,” Board Chair Doug Smith said. “With the assistance of a team of staff and community, we thoroughly reviewed the applications and selected several for initial interviews.

“From the initial interviews we narrowed the field of candidates to two finalists. We reference checked the finalists and invited them to spend a day in our district, meeting with many groups of staff followed by a community forum,” Smith added.

“We concluded their day here with a second round of interviews by the School Board. Both finalists were excellent, but Sara Johnson emerged as the right fit to be our next superintendent. She has been highly successful in her current district and community and she feels like the right person to take our District into the future,” the board chair said.

Since 2016, Johnson has been the director of assessment, equity & school improvement for the Klamath County School District in Klamath Falls, which has about 6,500 students.

Previously, she served for three years as superintendent for the Sumner School District in Sumner, Washington, with a student enrollment of about 9,500.

Other administrative experience includes four years as assistant superintendent at the Lincoln County School District in Newport, with 5,200 students. She was named Oregon Principal of the Year and National Distinguished Principal in 2007.

For the last several years, she has also served as an adjunct professor for Southern Oregon University and George Fox University.

Johnson has a doctorate degree in educational leadership from George Fox University and a master’s degree in teaching education from Eastern Oregon University.

When asked about her philosophy for education, Johnson said, “My priorities are learning, safety, and facilitation of continuous improvement. Public education is powerful and important. It has the potential to change the world through developing knowledge, skills and attitudes in children.”

“All educators need to continuously learn and improve, responding with agility to the children and culture,” she added. ” I am excited to become the next superintendent and working with the staff, students, parents and community at Crook County School District to see how much we can accomplish together.”