Who needs reality TV when you’re a student at Portland Public Schools? In this week’s episode, you’ll meet a new character: former CEO of Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) and public education powerhouse, our Interim Superintendent, Dr. Sandra Husk.
On Dec. 11, 2023, just weeks after the month-long teacher strike, former Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero announced his controversial resignation. As he packed his bags for his new job in Los Angeles, PPS’ exhausted school board made a call; just six months into her long-awaited retirement, Husk recognized the familiar area code. She contemplated the call in her San Diego home with her husband. “I think you know how to do it [and] I think they need you,” he remarked. And that’s what you missed last week at PPS.
To many, Husk’s first weeks at PPS seemed quite unusual. Husk was tasked with announcing and helping implement $30 million in cuts amidst already tense district-teacher relations. But for Husk, whose LinkedIn experience section is longer than my attention span, it was nothing more than a day at the nine-to-five. “I’ve been in the top seat for 27 years, either as a superintendent or a CEO,” she explained. “So I do know what to do. It’s just a matter of getting to know enough people and enough information to make the right decisions.”
But budget cuts and unusual years are nothing new to Husk. In 2001, during her first year serving as superintendent of Clarksville Montgomery County School System, she inherited a massive budget deficit that required her to make difficult mid-year teacher cuts. Just months later, she navigated supporting the district — which was made up of a large military community — through the fallout of 9/11. “I just knew that I had to make sure that people had the information they needed, and that the kids were safe because a lot of their parents were scrambling to get to the base,” she said.
Chaos followed her when she became superintendent of the Salem-Keizer School District. Just a year after she arrived, the 2008 recession took a large toll on district revenue. Both before and during Husk’s leadership, the district had increased spending per student despite dips in revenue and rising costs. In response, she needed to make severe reductions to account for empty reserves and a $55 million deficit.
After spending 17 years as superintendent — including a stint as superintendent advisor to the National School Public Relations Association — Husk took her passion for public education elsewhere.
From 2014 to 2022, she served as CEO of AVID. This global nonprofit provides educators with resources to set up elective classes with the sole purpose of increasing students’ academic achievement, in means of preparing them for further education. Her work didn’t stop there, she continued serving on boards for some of the biggest educational for-profit and non-profit organizations in the country.
“After any given day, when you’re working in an organization that’s dealing with a lot of moving parts, you can inherit a lot of things that are unexpected,” Husk explained. “I came into a district that had just finished a strike and then had gone through a major weather event and needed to get back on track and keep moving so kids [could] graduate … so I just jumped in.”
Husk will pass off her residency in June. In the months leading up to her departure, she will help execute Guerrero’s budget, while increasing communication between the central office and principals, rebuilding teacher-district trust, and working towards a clean handoff to the next superintendent of PPS.
Husk is, and has been, a true pillar of public education — one can only hope her appointment as interim superintendent sets a precedent for future district leadership.
As for the next episode? The school board is currently in the arduous process of selecting the next superintendent, who is set to debut at the end of the academic year. But who knows, anything can happen at PPS.
