Last July, superintendent Jim Golden was fired by the Greater Albany Public School Board for gross insubordination, neglect of duty, and prejudicial administrative practices. Following this, the school board conducted a search process for a temporary superintendent to serve through this school year. The school board hired Tim Mills, who is leaving retirement for one year after a long career in school administration. Citing a desire to return to education, at least for the time being, Mills will be working in our school district for just this upcoming year.
Mills will not apply for a more permanent post, as he claims his contract prevents him from being here any longer, presumably to create a more equitable application process. The search process for a long-term superintendent will take the bulk of this school year and will have candidates nationwide.
Having retired to his home in Colorado, Mills came to Albany and started his new job on short notice, with his contract being signed in the latter half of summer break and his first day on the job being Aug. 29. During the end of the previous school year, assistant superintendent Tonja Everest assumed the role of acting superintendent, but having planned to leave the district at the end of the year, her replacement as assistant superintendent–Lisa Harlan–stepped up to head Greater Albany Public Schools during her first few weeks working for Greater Albany Public Schools.
Mills was selected after a nationwide search which received 17 total applications and yielded three finalists. He will serve only through June 30 of 2019, and will earn around $150,000. Rather than just receiving the customary additional health insurance, the district will also give him a housing stipend to rent an apartment for $1,250, given he will be living here only temporarily.
A 40-year educator with 18 years of experience as a superintendent, Mills retired in 2017 from the Bellevue School District outside Seattle to his home state of Colorado. Prior to that, Mills served three years as superintendent in greater Portland, and several years in some Colorado school districts, having been selected as Colorado Superintendent of the Year in 2009. A graduate of the University of Colorado, in Boulder, Mills began his career as a music teacher before rising through the administrative ranks.
Given his inevitably short tenure with Greater Albany Public Schools, Mills plans to focus more on building a stable and well-managed district than on more long-term legacy projects. With the school district busy after the tumultuous dismissal of its former leader and a $159 million bond measure to implement, Mills will stay busy keeping the district stable and running. However, Mills aspires to be as accessible to the public as possible, having met with and visited as many schools, faculty, and community members as he could within a short time. Moreover, he plans to create a superintendent’s advisory committee consisting of high school students from all grade levels.
In his time here, Mills will need to restore a district which has lost faith in its administration and ensure an increasingly complicated district-wide reconstruction effort goes smoothly. His role is to manage the district’s day to day affairs and advise education and administrative policy, and as such, he will have the influence to set district priorities, impact curriculum, and modify the bureaucracy that shapes much of a student’s educational experience. Indeed, the ways in which he modifies or maintains the district status quo will inevitably trickle down to students throughout Albany.
