Troy J. Thayne — who goes by “J” — began work at Mt. Edgecumbe High School in July, 2014.
Mt. Edgecumbe High School Superintendent J Thayne has resigned.
Thayne turned in his resignation on Friday afternoon (1-9-14), after just six months as head of the state-run boarding school.
He will be replaced for the rest of the school year by former Mt. Edgecumbe Superintendent Bill Hutton, who held the post from 2008 to 2010.
Alaska Education Commissioner Mike Hanley said Thayne’s resignation was partially for personal reasons.
“Any new position, learning a new culture, learning a new situation, a new community, is always a challenge,” Hanley said. “We worked closely with J, with Mr. Thayne, for the last five or six months. And we know that he was working hard at adjusting, at making those commitments. I don’t know if it’s a total surprise that he resigned. I know he was working hard at making things work while he was there.”
Hutton, who will start work next Monday (1-19-14), has a long history in Sitka.
Before serving as Mt. Edgecumbe Superintendent, he was assistant superintendent of the Sitka School District from 2002 to 2005, and principal of Sitka’s Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary School for seven years. He spent sixteen years as a teacher and then principal in Hoonah.
Hutton had retired to Florida, but Hanley said he’d made it clear that he wanted to return.
“All along he’s been telling the Deputy Commissioner, ‘If I ever got a chance to come back to Alaska, I would love to,'” Hanley said. “So that’s a conversation, just a casual conversation, that has been taking place for the last six months.”
Hanley said Hutton has agreed to stay on at least through the end of the school year. Former superintendent Randy Hawk, who retired last summer, has also agreed to assist as needed.
Thayne’s resignation comes at a time of unusual turnover. Hanley said that over the last two years, Alaska has lost over half of its superintendents.
Hiring and retaining so many new superintendents is “a huge challenge,” Hanley said. Just this month, Petersburg’s district chief also resigned.
“We typically see that, with new superintendents, they either make it and stick around for four, five, ten years, or they rotate out within a year or two,” Hanley said. “I think that’s going to be a particular challenge for us, with a lot of new superintendents here in the state, to provide them the support to get them past that first couple of years that are the toughest.”
The state has run a coaching program for superintendents and principals, along with its mentoring program for teachers. But in the current budget climate, that program is facing cuts.
Mt. Edgecumbe High School has about four hundred students, most of whom come from small towns and villages around the state and live on campus.
Hanley said he doesn’t expect that students or parents will notice any changes during the transition.
