SEATTLE — Larry Nyland, former superintendent of the Marysville School District, has been tapped to replace Jose Banda as interim superintendent of Seattle Public Schools.
Banda is leaving Seattle to take the top job at the Sacramento City Unified School District.
Nyland and the Seattle School Board have not negotiated the terms of the one-year appointment, Seattle Public Schools spokeswoman Teresa Wippel said.
Nyland retired in June 2013 after nine years leading the Marysville district. He joined Marysville in 2004 in the wake of a bitter 49-day teachers’ strike and declining enrollment and revenues.
Over the course of his tenure, Nyland earned a reputation for restoring relationships between the district staff and the teachers union. He oversaw a 22 percent rise in graduation rates and the passage of a $118 million bond issue in 2006 that built Grove Elementary and what is now the Marysville Getchell Campus.
Those skills will come in handy at Seattle Public Schools, which has had three superintendents in the past decade. Banda has spent just two years there, and his predecessor, Maria Goodloe-Johnson, was fired after spending less than four years on the job. Her predecessor, Raj Manhas, led the district for three years.
Nyland has had a career spanning four decades. It has included the top jobs at school districts in Alaska, Pasco and Shoreline. He began his career in 1971 as a high school teacher in Gig Harbor.
Nyland is a graduate of Roosevelt High School in Seattle and earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Washington.
Nyland will start Aug. 1. His contract is scheduled to be ratified at the Seattle School Board’s Aug. 20 meeting.
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165 or cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald
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