The Durango School District 9-R Board of Education has a significant void to fill with Superintendent Keith Owen’s departure, and the manner in which the board addresses the leadership gap will be an important measure of its effectiveness. Thus far, the board appears poised to handle the transition with the attention and care it deserves; moving quickly with naming Owen’s interim successor, though, will send an important message to the community.

When the district made Owen’s departure public, the board indicated that it had someone in mind to serve as an interim superintendent while a longer term search for a permanent replacement could get under way. Then, though, the board backpedaled, saying it wanted to review internal candidates and discuss an interim appointment when all its members were present. That delay, while certainly understandable and made for perhaps the right reasons, should be remedied quickly.

Perhaps a better approach for the district to signal the stability that will best position it for a smooth transition would have been to wait until an interim superintendent could be named before announcing Owen’s departure. That seamlessness would have set the community at ease at an important time for the school district.

Owen’s legacy is one of establishing vision and direction for the district in the form of a strategic plan that was formulated with significant community input. Ensuring that the components articulated in the plan are implemented to completion will be the important task of the interim superintendent and the permanent leader who follows. Owen, too, built voter support for a mill-levy increase to fund district needs, again articulated through community forums. That revenue will keep class sizes small, provide pay increases for teachers and staff, and allow for new technology and programming for students. The interim superintendent will be responsible for caretaking that funding – a job that must be done all the more effectively in this economic climate wherein most school districts are making painful cuts. Doing so will be essential in order to give the community confidence in 9-R’s application of voters’ generosity.

Additionally, the interim superintendent is likely to be faced with navigating a changing landscape in terms of standards handed down from the U.S. Department of Education via the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Assuming that Congress comes to an agreement about raising the debt ceiling and can move on to other business, the ESEA is in need of reauthorization, and that process will yield changes in standards that districts will be required to meet. Owen, in his new role as associate commissioner of education at the Colorado Department of Education, will be a valuable resource in helping 9-R and other districts across the state deal with any federally mandated changes. That is a boon for the district, and naming an interim superintendent who is familiar with 9-R’s inner workings and is attuned to the federal education reform process will further smooth the implementation that will follow that reform’s enactment.

Leadership changes are by their nature destabilizing events in the life of an organization. That is not to say they are inherently negative, but a sound transition plan is crucial to keeping an organization on track through the shift. The school board would be wise to waste no time in naming an interim superintendent to succeed Owen. Doing so will shore up the well-deserved confidence the community has in a competent, efficient and responsive school district.