Right or wrong, it’s Burnley’s call

After years of public service, Dwight Probasco will retire this spring as principal of Wasilla High School.

But that’s not what people were focused on Wednesday at the Mat-Su Borough School District Board of Education meeting.

For us it started Monday when concerned community members began sending emails and text messages voicing their displeasure with the process the school district used to pick Probasco’s replacement.

What seems to have ruffled local feathers more than who Mat-Su Superintendent Ken Burnley picked — or didn’t pick — to lead Wasilla High next year is the process used to make the selection.

The selection process included a committee appointed to review applicants, narrow the list to the best candidates, interview those candidates and then recommend one to Burnley.

Committee members completed that process and recommended Wasilla High Vice Principal Mark Okeson for the principal’s slot.

But Burnley did not take the committee’s recommendation.

That’s about the time the flow of emails, texts and phone calls from people concerned about the process increased. At first folks were worried Burnley intended to bring in an administrator from outside Alaska.

And that seemed to rub folks wrong, who remembered that when Burnley was hired last year to lead the school district he in turn hired his former Detroit co-worker Ken Forrest as the assistant superintendent of business and operations.

“It is a shame that we bring in a superintendent from out of state and pay him nearly $200,000 a year and refuse to hire a local candidate who has exceptional credentials and is qualified for the job,” Bill Fletcher wrote.

He wrote back several hours later with an update.

“It looks likes Mr. Burnley felt the pressure of the concerned community hours before the board meeting and appointed Amy Spargo as the new principal for Wasilla High, even though she did not apply for the job.”

Burnley announced at the Wednesday night board meeting he will transfer Wasilla Middle School Principal Amy Spargo across the street next fall to lead Wasilla High.

At the same time, he and school board members also received a petition signed by more than 100 school district staff and other community members who object to the process used.

At the meeting, speakers like Mat-Su Education Association President Jill Showman said their objections were to the process used and not the person picked. She said it was the process that led union members in the MSEA and certified staff to overwhelmingly vote “no confidence.”

It is the public’s right to object. And they did. They testified at the board meeting, sent emails, wrote letters to the editor and signed petitions.

And in spite of these voices Burnley transferred Spargo from WMS to WHS.

Although in the United States, citizens are free to voice their opinions, majority vote isn’t how personnel decisions are made.

The decision of who to hire for Wasilla High principal does not rest with the public. It does not rest with the school board. The weight of this responsibility sits on Burnley’s shoulders.

Right or wrong, it’s his call.

We hope Spargo is the right person for the job and that she can build on her relationships with students and parents she met at Wasilla Middle in her new role at Wasilla High.