John Holst with his granddaughter Katie (Photo courtesy of John Holst)

The Chatham School District’s board of education announced the hiring of a new interim superintendent, following the sudden death of its superintendent on December 1. KHNS’ Corinne Smith reports.

Bruce Houck, Chatham’s superintendent of schools since 2017, died unexpectedly in his sleep on December 1 at his home in Angoon.

The Chatham School board met on December 8, and appointed John Holst, a former Sitka educator to serve in the meantime.

In an email to Klukwan school staff Wednesday, board chair Elizabeth Hooge said Holt has decades of experience as a teacher, principal, superintendent, and many other roles in Alaska education.  Most recently he served as Sitka’s Interim Superintendent for the 2020-21 school year. And, Hooge said Holt was expected to arrive in Angoon that day to begin learning about our district.

Hooge did not return requests for comment.

Prior to serving as interim superintendent for the Sitka School District last year, Holst served stints as superintendent in Denali, Craig, and in Sitka in the 1990s. For over two decades, he’s been an education consultant.

“I was the superintendent of schools in Sitka from 1993 to 2001,” Holst said. “And retired at that point, at age 55. And I’ve been doing consulting work since that time. The bulk of it during the last five, six years has been mentoring of new superintendents.”

As the top administrator of the Chatham School District, Holst will manage its roughly $4.4 million dollar budget, which includes administering schools in the small communities of Klukwan, Angoon, Gustavus and an independent learning center in Tenakee Springs. Holst says he has experience serving native communities. 

“The last 20 years, most of my consulting work has been in native villages, lower Yukon, Northwest Arctic, North Slope, Lower Kuskokwim, and then lots of smaller, single site districts like Dillingham, others like that. So I’ve been in almost 100 schools during the last 20 years, all over Alaska, mostly in the interior,” Holst said. “I think your education needs to be done according to what is right for the students in each village. And it’s often times different.”

Photo courtesy of John Holst

Holst says he was contacted shortly after Houck’s death and agreed to a temporary, daily rate contract to serve as interim, and expects to serve just for the spring term.

“Well, I’m excited about being here,” Holst said. “I think the board was very clear on what their expectations were. And I think I should be able to do what they’ve requested. And of course, this is clearly an interim role. I’m not going to be here longer than through June. And I will be assisting the board I imagine with replacing, filling the position.” 

He declined to state the pay, and inquiries with the district for his interim contract are pending. The former superintendent Bruce Houck was paid a salary of $130,000 per year. 

Holst arrived at the district offices in Angoon on Thursday, after two days of travel delays flying from Sitka. He spoke just hours after arriving in Houck’s former office, where he says his first task is to assess where things stand.

“Try to figure out where things are right now going through the office here. And of course, Bruce (Houck) died suddenly, so the office is filled with stuff. And I’ve just started kind of going through and trying to figure out what I need to do with many of the files and the pieces of paper that are here.”

He says he’ll continue to live in  Sitka, and he’s also involved in advising three school districts in strategic planning. 

“I think the expectations are that we sort of keep all the balls in the air or that have been juggled. And there are a lot of them,” Holst said. “Because a good share the budget here is grant funded, either competitive grants or formula grants through the federal government. So we have a lot of those kinds of things that needs to be tended to and I will need to do that. Also, budgeting time is coming rapidly. And so we’re going to be starting the budget for FY 23. I would imagine very soon, in early January.”

Holst acknowledged the ongoing negotiations on the future of the Klukwan school, after its enrollment dropped below 10 students this year. But he declined to comment on next steps in the process. He says he’s meeting with staff in Angoon this week, and plans to hold Zoom meetings with staff and community from Klukwan, Gustavus and Tenakee Springs in the coming days.