Andy Harlow named Wahluke School District superintendent

MATTAWA — Andy Harlow was voted as the new Wahluke School District superintendent by Wahluke School District Board members 3-2 at a special meeting Thursday.

Board members Maybeline Pantaleon and Jesse Chiprez voted no on the motion to offer a contract to Harlow, who’s been interim superintendent since July 2020, while board members Lorraine Jenne, Craig Sabin and Seth Weeks voted yes.

Chiprez declined to say why he voted no, but was happy with his vote. He said he wished Harlow every success and that he would support Harlow’s efforts.

“I’m confident he’ll do a great job for us,” Chiprez said.

The vote came after board members spent two hours in an executive session. Jenne, the board chair, said she was hoping for a unanimous decision, but it was clear that wasn’t possible. As a result, she said she called for the vote to determine where each board member stood.

“That wasn’t the outcome I had hoped for,” she said.

However, each board member said they would support the superintendent no matter who was selected, Jenne said.

Harlow replaces Robert Eckert, who resigned at the end of the 2019-20 school year. At the time, district officials were deciding whether students would return for in-person learning or would continue in distance learning.

“We gave him a very difficult challenge and he stepped up and did an incredible job,”Jenne said.

Harlow said the reaction of some district patrons on social media about the selection process being just for show indicated to him the district and the school board lost the trust of some patrons.

“We have a lot of work to do,” he said.

Jenne said board members tried to include all district patrons who wanted to participate and conducted a nationwide search for candidates.

“We had quite a robust process,” she said.

Community members had the chance to watch interviews of the five preliminary candidates, and provide their comments, Jenne said. Three candidates were invited to Mattawa and district patrons had a chance to meet the candidates and give comments.

Harlow said one of his first goals is to work on building trust with district patrons.

“Trust and equity seem to be the big things,” he said.

A second priority is additional planning, he said, from a yearly plan to three, five and 10-year plans. Some progress has been made, and the district is in a better spot than it was, he said.

“It’ll be a lot of tough discussions,” he said.

Harlow has been a teacher, coach and administrator in the district for about 20 years.

“This (the superintendent’s job) is something I never set out to do,” he said.

He has a good idea about the path he wants to take, he said.

“Overall, I’m excited that I’m going to be given the opportunity to build a pre-kindergarten to 12 (grade) system that we’re proud of.”