North Thurston school board votes 4-1 to name longtime employee new superintendent

The North Thurston Public Schools board voted 4-1 Sunday morning to name longtime employee Troy Oliver the next superintendent of the county’s largest school district.

The board voted Sunday morning because they couldn’t previously come to a decision Thursday night. Director Esperanza Badillo-Diiorio voted against Oliver.

Oliver, who has spent 27 years with the district and is the current assistant superintendent of operations, starts July 1. He is set to earn $330,000 a year, according to previous job posting information. He will replace current district leader Debra Clemens, who announced her retirement earlier this year.

“On behalf of the board, I thank Troy for accepting this role,” said NTPS School Board President Gretchen Maliska in a statement. “Troy has served this district extremely well for more than two decades and was an exceptional candidate in our superintendent search. He knows the staff, the community, and is himself the parent of two NTPS graduates. He is a leader who will support staff and work with the community in service to our students.”

The path to hiring Oliver was not a smooth one. The district had previously offered the job to Alaska-based school administrator Justin Ainsworth on April 10 and he had accepted the job and signed his contract, according to district information. But on the afternoon of April 23, he announced his resignation, citing family concerns.

That prompted the school board to meet Thursday night to re-interview the two remaining finalists: Oliver and Thu Ament of the Sumner-Bonney Lake School District. The board spent three hours in executive session but by 11 p.m. had not reached a decision. They agreed to meet again at 8 a.m. Sunday morning.

“I have been proud to work in this dynamic and student-focused district for so many years and am honored to be its next leader,” Oliver said in a statement. “I look forward to working with our staff, families, and community to continue the NTPS legacy of empowering all students for success.”

Oliver attended Whitworth University in Spokane, where he earned an undergraduate degree in history. He later returned to Whitworth and earned a master’s of education degree in educational administration in 1995.

Prior to the board offering the job to Ainsworth, all three finalists addressed a community gathering on April 10, answering prepared and submitted questions. Here is some of what Oliver said:

▪ On things the district can be better at: “The adults in front of our students need to be more consistent with our student population. Our staff does not look like our student population. We are whiter than our student population. It’s certainly an area for us to improve, and we have made some strides in this area, but we are nowhere near where we need to be.”

▪ On controversy: “We had a student strike at River Ridge High School. It was difficult and I was very involved in it. One of the things I have come to understand is that students engage in that activity when they don’t feel their voices are being heard. If you can listen and authentically interact with students and give them the opportunity for their voices to be heard and act in a way that benefits and is important to them, you are going to have more success. It was disruptive to school and it was hard on the River Ridge community and parents. All of it was unfortunate, but students felt it was necessary.”

▪ On the critical issues facing education the next five years: “School funding. We have bigger aspirations than the funding coming into the system. How do we support students in a social media environment that is increasingly complex and more ubiquitous? Some of it is positive and some of it creates a lot of angst and anxiety for students. And how do we as a system embrace and channel artificial intelligence? How do we raise critical thinkers and discern between factual and not factual information as they (students) grow up and navigate and be successful? And the mental health of students. I do think our society and school systems are in a better place to talk about it and bring it out of the shadows.”