Trustees rate Superintendent “Satisfactory” in mid-year evaluation 

Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter 

Halfway through his first year on the job, Lyon County School District Superintendent Tim Logan received a grade of “Satisfactory” from the District Board of Trustees at their Dec. 17 meeting. 

Logan took over as superintendent following the resignation of Wayne Workman at the end of the last school year. 

Several of the trustees said they are happy with the job Logan has done in his six months on the job, but that six months is not enough time to determine whether someone is exceeding expectations. 

The Trustees graded Logan using a rating based on standards and professional practices in five major outcomes, with several more specific categories under each outcome. Each trustee gave Logan 5 points for exceeding expectations, three for meeting expectations and one for not meeting expectations.  

Under the outcome of Student Learning and Instruction, Logan received an average score of 3.11. For Communication and Ethics, his score was also 3.11. For Human Resources and Finance, the Trustees graded him at 3.38, for Policy and Board Relations the average was 3.29 and for Facilities and Safety it was 3.69. The overall average rating was 3.29. 

Each Trustee explained the highlights of their personal evaluations. 

Trustee Tom Hendrix said the district’s test scores need a lot of improvement.  

“I know we have a brand new superintendent and I have great expectations for him, and I look forward to working with him and achieving some goals that the new board may have,” Hendrix said. 

Trustee Sherry Parsons likewise said student achievement proficiency and test scores do not met expectations. She said the district has a reasonable graduation rate, that the district is meeting the needs of students with special learning needs, but she said under district goals, that she does not believe the Portrait of a Learner program has been effective.  

“I just don’t like the program in general,” she said.  

Parsons related a comment from a staff member, saying  “We had to go through another training of Portrait of a Learner and I felt like I was going to put a gun to my head, it was so boring. They could have said it in four sentences and we had to sit there for a whole hour.”  

Regarding Ethics, Parsons objected to the district having so many policy amendments on the agenda in the past two meetings. 

“I put shoving so many policies right after the election, when we didn’t have the time to really read them, not to really talk to our constituents about them,” she said. “So that definitely needs improvement.” 

Referring to a question on personnel procedures, recruitment and retention, Parsons the district’s retention and recruitment are not working. 

At the other end of the scale, Parsons said she rated the district’s emergency operation plan and social emotional learning as excellent. 

Trustee Darin Farr said he Logan in his sixth month on the job is just getting started in a lot of the categories. 

“Some of those things, I don’t think I could have awarded ‘exceeds expectations’ because again, we’re halfway through the year and this is his first year on the job,” Farr said.  

However, Farr said Logan’s communication skills, his stakeholder relationship skill and, his ability to regularly visit the schools and engage with staff members of every level are all excellent.  

“Even he will admit that he’s got a great staff working for him, so sometimes they just make him look good, and we talked about that, so that’s great,” Farr said. “I think he’s got a good plan, I think he’s got a strategic vision looking forward.” 

Trustee Neal McIntyre II likewise said he rated Logan as ‘meets expectations’ on most categories because he hasn’t been on the job long enough to exceed expectations. 

“I know being the deputy superintendent he walked into the superintendent already having a great plan in mind, and so far, it seems like he’s implanting that plan,” McIntyre said. “For six months, he’s just meeting expectations right now and I think moving forward, he’s going to do a great job.” 

Trustees Bridget Peterson and Holly Villines said they gave Logan excellent marks for ethics and communication. 

Trustee Phil Cowee said Logan has hit the ground running. 

“Typically it takes a superintendent about three years to try to make change in their district and the average superintendent stays on the job for two years, so do that math and it’s kind of a problem,” Cowee said. “But I think we’re definitely light years ahead, having an internal candidate that can hit the ground running from day one and really drive to have some improvement in our district.” 

Cowee said the concerns about low test scores could be helped by lowering the level of chronic absenteeism in the district.  

“Being the superintendent it’s kind of hard to get all those kids to come to school, but I think as a community and as parents, if we really strive to get out kids to school more days in a year, I think it would definitely help a lot of our test scores and data,” he said.