Navarro ISD selects superintendent finalist
(Geronimo) — The Navarro ISD has unanimously named a lone finalist for the position of superintendent of schools.
After months of conducting a superintendent search, the school board on Tuesday night announced Wendi Russell as its selection for the position. Russell currently serves as the interim superintendent for Pecos Barstow Toyah ISD located in West Texas. Russell is a 30 year veteran in the field of education and is originally from Sherman located in North Texas. In addition to Pecos, she has also previously served as an assistant superintendent in VanAlstyne ISD.
Russell tells the Seguin Daily News that she is excited and ready to begin her new journey in Navarro.
“I’m humbled by the offer and I am truly excited. I’m excited about the great things that are happening in Navarro and I want to be able to come in and expand the great things that are happening and maybe grow new programs as well so we can offer a premiere education as well for all of our students,” said Russell.
Russell says after learning about the Navarro ISD, it didn’t take her long to realize that this was a place that she wanted to be.
“Honestly as I looked at districts to apply, I’m very selective in any district that I would have applied in. I’ve only applied for about three superintendent jobs so the district is so community based that the district drives the community and they have such great parent involvement, student involvement and that’s I was looking for — was a place that has a hometown feel and it felt like home the minute that I drove in and we stayed in a hotel and look around through the community. It felt like home and that speaks volumes to the phenomenal things that have been happening in Navarro and what is to come with the growth,” said Russell.
Throughout her years, Russell also picked up experience having served as a middle school principal, technology consultant, and elementary school teacher.
Navarro Board President Dr. Greg Gilcrease says the school board is excited about welcoming Russell to Navarro. Gilcrease says Russell is exactly what the district was hoping for.
“She had a lot of the same qualities that Dee had as far as cares for the kids, very good on curriculum and instruction. She has a good knowledge of finance. I mean she was ready to lead this school district,” said Gilcrease.
Gilcrease says the school district was honored to have such a great pool of candidates in which to choose from. He says the quality of that group only makes Russell’s selection even more impressive.
“It was extremely difficult. We had 39 applicants and we had a hard time narrowing it down. We finally narrowed it to eight and then did interviews and then after the interviews, we had another difficult decision – we narrowed it down to three and basically, she just rose to the top. I mean her energy and her love of education, it reminded a lot of us of how we love being on the board and love serving the Navarro ISD,” said Gilcrease.
Even through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gilcrease says the district is proud to have successfully completed its search. He says the district was committed to finding the very best — pressing through any and all challenges.
“We used Walsh, Anderson and Ann Dixon as our consultant and we talked about this quite a bit is we had a lot of quality applicants. We didn’t really have anybody drop out. I mean everyone that we wanted to talk to was able to come and talk to us. We were very social distanced and so we had everybody come and interview in person. It was a very quality applicant pool. We were very surprised of how good the candidates were,” said Gilcrease.
By law, the school board may not hire Russell as the new superintendent for at least 21 days. That official date of hire is scheduled for May 5. Russell will replace current Superintendent Dee Carter who will retire at the end of the school year.