PENDLETON â Pendleton High School will soon have a new principal.
The Pendleton School District School Board has selected Patrick âPatâ Dutcher as the schoolâs new leader. Dutcherâs contract begins on July 1. Dutcher will replace current PHS Principal Melissa Sandven, who resigned effective June 30 earlier in the year.
âMr. Dutcher possesses the qualities we were looking for in our next principal, high integrity, instructional leader, student-centered and a great communicator,â said Superintendent Chris Fritsch. âFinding someone with knowledge and understanding of our area was also important to the selection committee.â
Dutcher is currently the principal of EDGE High School in the Salem-Keizer School District. Prior to that, he served as the curriculum principal at West Salem High School.
The Pendleton School District needs solid leadership, and Briana Spencer is the right candidate to fill Position 7 on the board.
Briana is a strong leader. She believes in a community focus and investing in the future. She knows the issues, and she does not shy away from hard discussions. She would also bring some diversity and needed community engagement to the board.
Briana knows the community well and is invested in seeing it succeed. Sheâs grown up in the Pendleton community and attended Pendleton schools. She identifies with the community and its needs. She knows the challenges the community faces in educating its children in a changing world with limited state funding and a local economy where the hospitality industry and local businesses have been hit hard.
PENDLETON â Come this summer, nearly half of the Pendleton School District Board will consist of new faces.
At a Jan. 6 school board meeting, Chair Debbie McBee announced that she and board members Gary George and Steve Umbarger intended to retire from the board at the end of their terms expiring in June.
The retirements will open three seats on the seven-person school board, and McBee encouraged her colleagues to solicit interest among district residents in running for the seats.
The school board is losing its most experienced members: McBee was first elected in 2009 while Umbarger was appointed in 2010 before he was elected to fill the rest of the term in 2011.