January 25, 2013 [B1]
www.rentonreporter.com
A Tribute to the Superintendent
AT LEFT: Mary Alice Heuschel speaks of her six years with the Renton schools, between meetings and getting her office packed up in early January. Dean A. Radford, Renton Reporter ABOVE: Dr. Heuschel helps students at Highlands Elementary with backpacks in September 2008. Renton School District
Mary Alice Heuschel
She’s leaving Renton’s schools in good hands as she takes on critical state issues as Inslee’s chief of staff By DEAN A. RADFORD dradford@rentonreporter.com
It’s hard to say no to a governor, but Mary Alice Heuschel wasn’t going to leave the Renton School District behind if it wasn’t in good hands. It is and Heuschel is now chief of staff for Gov. Jay Inslee. Heuschel, 51, will bring a lot of Renton with her to Olympia, from her ability to build a team around common goals to measuring whether those goals have been achieved – and being up-front when they haven’t. Inslee had to pass muster with Heuschel, too, who is essentially gatekeeper to Inslee’s time, making sure it’s used effectively. All state department heads will report to her. “This is a big move for me,” Heuschel said, one she didn’t seek out. “I would not and did not take this position lightly in any way, shape or form when he first approached me about doing this.” Inslee initially appointed Heuschel as one of three leaders of his transition to the Governor’s Office. Heuschel explained why she took the job in answering a question about partisanship in Washington, D.C. Inslee was elected
eight times to serve as a U.S. congressman from Washington. What she has seen and learned about Inslee are the reasons she took the job – his “absolute commitment” to the state and his “total understanding” of the need to work collaboratively across the aisle in Olympia to move the state forward. “The voters have spoken, this is the work, and we need to make Washington the best
place it can be for the people of the state of Washington. That’s why he’s doing it, or I wouldn’t have said yes,” she said. While serving as chief of staff to a governor wasn’t in her career plans, serving as the superintendent of either the Renton School District or the Tacoma School District was. Heuschel has worked in Olympia before, as deputy superintendent of public instruction. It was there that she played a key role in developing the state’s student assessments, including the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, and in implementing the federal No Child Left Behind law. Heuschel worked for state school Superintendent Terry Bergeson for six years, including running the office while Bergeson ran for her second term. But Heuschel still had unfinished business. She wanted to complete her doctorate degree and she wanted to fill a gap in her resume, that of school superintendent at the local level. So she stepped down as Bergeson’s deputy as Bergeson was preparing to run for a third term and started researching school districts. She settled on Renton’s and Tacoma’s and became a finalist for superintendent in both districts in 2006.
Renton and Tacoma were on a similar timeline; Heuschel said she didn’t want to pin one district against the other. Near the end of the selection process, the Tacoma School Board asked to see all the original applications, which delayed an interview with the community by almost a week. In that week Heuschel got a call from Al Talley, then Renton School Board president, and she was offered the Renton job, which she accepted. She replaced Dolores Gibbons. Tacoma had time to consider another applicant in her place, she said. Talley had this to say about Heuschel when she came on board for the start of the 2006-2007 school year: “Our newly hired superintendent, Dr. Mary Alice Heuschel, is committed to providing education in a manner that offers opportunity for every child, at every school, every day.” In an interview with the Renton Reporter, Heuschel said she would have a “very specific focus” on math, with the goal of improving student achievement. “Renton will become the poster child for how to make that happen,” she said in the interview. [ more Heuschel page B3 ]
A tribute from the president of the Renton School Board
Dr. Heuschel: A leader of uncommon talent, energy, integrity By Lynn Desmarais
Dr. Mary Alice Heuschel’s time with us has been about building on a legacy of strong leadership and commitment to the Renton School District community. We knew her to be a leader of uncommon talent, ability, clear vision, energy and
integrity who was uniquely suited to taking on this challenge because of her experience leading the statewide education reform work at OSPI. From the beginning, Mary Alice validated that we chose our superintendent very well. Mary Alice’s predecessors, Drs. Gary Kohlwes and Dolores Gibbons, have a
legacy of setting our facilities plan on a path to rebuilding and renovation, as well as strengthening and building community partnerships, and establishing a firm foundation for the education reform work. That work continued during Mary Alice’s tenure, and has included completion the Secondary Learning Center and Honey-
dew Elementary School. The new Early Childhood Education Center will open this fall, and the new middle school 2-1/2 years from now. And, her connections regionally, statewide and nationally added new dimensions to the partnerships that benefit our schools in many ways. [ more tribute page B4 ]