Napavine School District Appoints Interim Superintendent, Works on ‘Hybrid-Model’ for Return to School in the Fall

Napavine School District’s Superintendent Geoff Parks has left the district and Dean of Students Shane Schutz will be serving as the district’s interim superintendent through the end of the coming school year. 

Schutz officially assumed the interim superintendent role on July 1 but had been working since June 1 on the reopening plans and working with Parks before his departure on June 12 to make the transition smoother. Parks left the district to take care of family members in Arizona, Schutz said.

Schutz has been with the Napavine School District for a total of 20 years — starting out as a history teacher. He has worked as the district’s athletic director for the past eight years and took on the role of the high school’s dean of students as well for the past four years. He has also coached girls’ basketball for several years.

As for the school’s reopening in fall, Schutz said that Napavine will be following all of the OSPI guidelines set for all Washington schools and they are working on a “hybrid model” for the upcoming school year which means students will spend a couple of days a week at school and the other days learning remotely from home.

“We believe it’s really important to have that face-to-face interaction with our staff and our students. So that hybrid model would include a group coming in on Monday and Wednesday and another group coming in Tuesday and Thursday,” he explained. “Fridays would be a virtual learning day to practice and prepare in case we have to go to a full distance learning model that we were previously on.”

Schutz said that based on the classroom sizes, in order to maintain 6-foot distancing the number of people in the building at a time needed to be reduced.

“We would like to get everyone here full time but we just don’t have the space to do that,” Schutz said.

The decision of which students come into school on which days is being based upon families so that siblings can come into school together. The idea is that older siblings can babysit their younger siblings when they are at home to make going to work easier for parents.

Schutz said that Napavine School District is doing everything they can to have athletics in a safe way in the coming school year but they don’t know what that is going to look like yet.

“There’s a lot of correlation between being an athletic director and a superintendent. There’s still a huge learning curve but, in terms of having to be prepared to react to anything in a moment’s time, I’ve seen some similarities in the positions,” said Schutz.

He also said that athletics has given him the ability to inspire teamwork in all situations which he has found to be beneficial in his new role.

Schutz is from a small town about 35 miles outside of Spokane and graduated from Rainier High School. He attended and played basketball at Centralia College and Saint Martin’s University — where he received his teaching certification. He received his master’s degree from Antioch University and his principal certification from Western Governor’s University. 

“Napavine was my first official teaching job and I’ve been here ever since. There’s a reason that I don’t want to leave and it’s because of the community and the staff and the people here are just an amazing group to work with and be around,” he said.

Napavine School Board intends to open up the superintendent position to applicants in December or January, Schutz said.

“I know our staff is hoping we can get back to school. They really miss the kids. Our staff is working to find every avenue to get as many kids back in the classroom as safely as possible,” he said.