Clayton Holland was selected last month to serve as the next Superintendent of Schools for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District after having served in previous roles in the district. He most recently served as the Assistant Superintendent of Instruction and is set to begin his tenure on July 1, 2021. He expressed hope and optimism in leading the district through these tough and trying times.
In talking with KSRM, Holland explained why he applied for the position, “I think it’s because I can make a difference. I believe that my time here, my experience in this district, knowing people, we’re in this pivotal time of change with leadership at district office and in this district coming off of COVID that I look forward to making a positive change in our district and in our community and I feel like I’m positioned to do that right now.”
Holland has been serving as an educator since 1997. Holland has served the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District as a teacher, coach, assistant principal, principal, program coordinator, director of student support services and as assistant superintendent of instruction.
Holland addresses what will happen with teaching moving forward with education affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, “First, I’m excited that our students are able to choose to be back across our entire district. So we have students in our buildings this entire time. We are looking at what do we keep from this year? What worked with remote education and what do we want to keep moving forward? So there are a number of things that we are, across the district, looking at with the digital presence with how we share our technology so we have kids that can access education from Kenai Central that a kid anywhere in our district can access that class, we have that capability now. So we’re looking at how do we become more efficient with what we do? How do we share resources? How do we do things that benefit kids no matter where you live in the district? That’s going to be a big part of what we do moving forward.”
Looking to the future, Holland explained what people can do as a community to help the youth benefit moving forward, “We’re looking at more ways that people can access and give input remotely. We are looking at that. We want to continue that outreach. One of the things that we have experienced, I know it’s been a lot of hardships, I’m not discounting that in any way, but we’ve also increased how we can reach people outside of the building. How do we have connections with families? How do we have connections with kids? So we’re going to continue to look at how we can do that and get people to have more input in what we’re doing and be part of what we’re doing as a district.”
At the most recent Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education meeting, a discussion of Holland officially accepting his contract took place and the Board unanimously voted to approve the contract.
