Bellevue school board names 3 finalists for superintendent job

The Bellevue School Board has picked an educational-leadership director at the University of Washington, a partner at an education consulting company and a deputy school superintendent from Vancouver, Wash., as finalists for the district's superintendent job.

It's an unusual slate of candidates; school boards typically tend to look for superintendents among the rolls of people already doing that job elsewhere.

But one quality ties all three candidates together: a background in professional development, said School Board President Chris Marks. Bellevue has a long history of stressing the importance of continually improving classroom-teaching skills.

Marks said the two candidates who aren't working in districts now both said they wanted to work in a district again one day.

The candidates are:

• Stephen Fink, the executive director of the Center for Educational Leadership at the UW. The center emphasizes the importance of improving classroom instruction to try to eliminate the achievement gap. Fink also has been the assistant superintendent, director of special programs and executive director for student services for the Edmonds School District. He also served as a principal at the Idaho State School for the Deaf and Blind.

• Susan Enfield, the deputy superintendent of the Evergreen Public Schools in Vancouver, Wash., the largest school district in Southwest Washington. She's also been the director of the Office of Teaching and Learning for Portland Public Schools, and bureau director of Teaching and Learning Support for the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

• Amalia Cudeiro, a senior partner at Targeted Leadership Consulting, a company with offices in Hawaii and California that emphasizes school-leadership training. She has been adjunct lecturer at Harvard University Urban Superintendents Program, deputy superintendent for the Boston Public Schools, and principal in both the Santa Monica Unified School District and the Baldwin Park Unified School District in California.

Enfield will visit the district Wednesday, Fink on Thursday and Cudeiro on Friday. The district will hold public forums for each candidate on the day of the visit to the district.

The forums will be at 5 p.m. at the Wilburton Instructional Service Center, 12241 Main St., Bellevue, in the Rainier Room.

The School Board has said it hopes to pick a superintendent before spring break begins April 6.

Katherine Long: 206-464-2219 or klong@seattletimes.com