Simms quits as Mercer Island schools chief

Superintendent Cyndy Simms has announced she will be leaving Mercer Island to move to a larger school district in Southern California, near where her daughter will be going to college.

Simms told the School Board during Thursday night's meeting that she had accepted a job overseeing Walnut Valley Unified School District starting Oct. 1.

Gary Plano, associate superintendent of instructional services, will take over as interim superintendent after her departure. Simms, 57, in her fourth year at Mercer Island, isn't sure yet when her last day will be.

Simms, who has been in education for about 35 years, said the move will allow her to be closer to her daughter, Cami, a freshman at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Her daughter graduated from Mercer Island High School in June.

The board plans to wait until after the November elections, when three positions are up for a vote, before deciding how to proceed with finding a permanent superintendent.

"I feel fortunate to be working in the capacity of superintendent," Plano said. "I love working in this community; it's a phenomenal place."

Plano has been with Mercer Island two years. He was previously with Kent School District, where he was an executive director of curriculum and school improvement. He began his career with Mukilteo School District in 1980 as a teacher and moved into an administrative position in 1997.

One of Plano's first duties will be to find a replacement to fill the associate-superintendent position. He'll also be at the district's helm when it plans to ask voters to renew a capital levy for maintenance and technology in February.

Before Simms came to Mercer Island, the district had an unusually high superintendent turnover. Simms was the island's sixth superintendent from 1990 to 2003, when she was hired.

At that time, the school board and the community had been mired in conflict over whether to expand the high school's honors and advanced-placement classes to allow more student access. Some were also concerned the district wasn't supporting students' personal growth beyond academics.

During her first year, Simms brought in a facilitator for a three-day workshop where district officials and board members came up with an agreement on how they would work together. That agreement is still used to this day, Simms said.

"We had to build a consensus around what we as a school district valued, and how we wanted to work together with each other," Simms said. "We couldn't move forward on behalf of the students while that conflict was going on."

During Simms' tenure, the district also put together a long-range instructional improvement plan for curriculum and assessments during the next five years.

Simms said she began to look for opportunities and challenges elsewhere as her daughter's graduation approached. She was passed up for a job with Bellingham School District earlier in the year.

Simms' new job will also come with a raise — from her $161,000 salary in Mercer Island, to $197,000 in Walnut Valley. That district's 15,000-student enrollment is about three times the size of Mercer Island's, and it is highly diverse: Students speak more than 56 languages.

Rachel Tuinstra: 206-515-5637 or rtuinstra@seattletimes.com