Renker, assistant superintendent, sees ‘interim’ lifted from title

Published 2:00 am Wednesday, December 30, 2015

The top administrators in Sequim’s schools are interims no longer.

Just weeks after the Sequim School Board agreed to hire then interim superintendent Gary Neal to the permanent position, Neal removed the term “interim” from Dr. Ann Renker’s title.

Renker is the Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning for the Sequim School District.

“What I want her to continue doing is working on improving student achievement through instruction,” Neal said, “anything from formative assessments and state assessments to dealing with the needs of kids — she’s a proven commodity with that kind of stuff.”

Renker worked for 20 years at the Cape Flattery School District and then a year as a leadership coach with Washington state’s Office of Student and School Success, before coming to the district at the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year. She was hired to take over Neal’s former role of assistant superintendent when the school board elected to put him in the interim role earlier this year; Neal succeeds Kelly Shea, now superintendent for the East Valley-Spokane School District.

Neal said Renker’s strong work effort and performance, plus positive responses from co-workers in the district, led him to hire her on as the permanent assistant superintendent. He lauded Renker’s familiarity with state compliance compatibility requirements and new statutes.

“She’s been able to rally all the different entities, anywhere from the principals to the teachers to content groups, from the high school to grade level groups at the elementary schools,” Neal said. “She understands how organizations work (and) gets right in there. She’s a worker bee.”