BULLHEAD CITY – The Colorado River Union High School District governing board has selected former superintendent Monte Silk to be the district’s new Superintendent for the upcoming school year. The vote was unanimous.
Last week’s decision followed a 45-minute community forum, including questions from an audience at CRUHSD’s Anderson Auto Group Fieldhouse. The school board then met with both Silk and CRUHSD career-technical education director Gina Covert in executive session for final interviews before reconvening in public for a formal vote.
The executive session, which included a review of post-forum audience comment cards, candidate interviews and discussion, lasted more than two hours.
Board members praised both candidates for their caliber and quality.
Silk was CRUHSD superintendent from 1999 to 2005. During the forum, he said that he helped CRUHSD get through an earlier financial crisis. By the time finances were reversed, he said CRUHSD’s teacher salaries were higher than the average teacher salaries in Maricopa County (Phoenix and surrounding areas). He described himself as someone who sets goals and collaborates.
Governing board member Carey Fearing singled out Covert as an asset to the district with a great future ahead of her.
River Valley High School principal Dorn Wilcox has served as interim superintendent since January, when Superintendent Todd Flora resigned. There were five semifinal applicants for the position, including Wilcox.
Monte Silk was assistant CRUHSD superintendent from 1998 to 1999 and CRUHSD Superintendent from 1999 until 2005. He was previously assistant superintendent at the Bullhead City School District starting in 1995. He retired last year as superintendent of the Sidney, Montana, Public Schools. He was with that district from 2017 until 2020. After leaving CRUHSD, Silk was the superintendent at Snowflake Unified School District in Arizona, Superintendent at Corvallis School District in Montana, where he served for five years, and interim superintendent of the Pine Creek School District in Montana. He has also owned an educational consulting business since 2013. Silk has held faculty and administrative positions in Iowa, Montana, Wyoming and Arizona, and has an educational specialist post-graduate degree.
The community forum replay is available on-demand at https://youtu.be/xsVm0-jIVrc, while the formal meeting portion is online at https://youtu.be/fZBOzzwnglg .
