Document text
A homecoming for Suzanne Cusick Suzanne Cusick is Ashland's interim superintendent for the 2016-17 school year. Mail Tribune / Jamie Lusch Wednesday Aug 24, 2016 at 4:38 PM Aug 24, 2016 at 4:38 PM By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune Six months ago, Suzanne Cusick was in Portland with her husband, Tim, living the good life of a retiree. She could wake up at who-cares-o’clock. Her to-do list included gardening. If she left her cellphone on the coffee table while running an errand, so what? Then one day last spring her youngest daughter, a doctor who lives in Ashland, called to say Ashland School District was looking for a superintendent to replace Jay Hummel, who would be leaving when his contract was up in July. Cusick knew she had no desire to take the full superintendent plunge, a commitment that would lop years off her sunset ride. But if the district was looking for a short-term fix in order to buy time, she thought, maybe they could help each other out. Cusick longed to spend more time with her granddaughter, and Ashland was still Ashland — the place she fell in love with during a Fourth of July vacation in 1981, when she and her husband decided this was where they wanted to raise their four children. “And then, when they made the decision, when I learned at least that it would be an interim (position), I said, ‘Oh, I think I could do that,’ ” Cusick said. “My husband was very supportive, and our kids were excited.” The district agreed that Cusick, 71, a former superintendent of the Longview School District in Longview, Washington, who retired in 2014, could do it, and in April she was hired to lead the district as its interim superintendent for the 2016-17 school year, affording it the time to conduct a thorough search for a long-term superintendent who will take over next summer. Cusick’s first day on the job was July 1. Hummel, said Cusick, is available by phone or email, as is his predecessor, Juli Di Chiro. All in all, she said, the transition has been a smooth one, albeit busy. “Everybody’s been so, so welcoming,” she said. “I’ve really enjoyed going to every school building, meeting with the school (principals) and doing walk-throughs of our buildings. And even though our buildings are old and we always have needs for aging school buildings, they’re in very, very good condition.” Cusick is adamant that she won’t come in and push the district toward a radical new course. Her job, as she sees it, is to keep the ship on its current trajectory and make sure her predecessor is positioned for another smooth transition next July. “My approach here is different than if I were going to be a long-term superintendent,” she said. “Really, I believe my job is to pave the way for the new superintendent and to ensure that systems are in place, that the community is ready and the staff is ready for a new and hopefully very long-term school leader.” Cusick and her husband both grew up in small towns in South Dakota before moving west, first to Los Angeles and later San Jose. Four children later they decided the big-city life wasn’t for them, so they began researching small towns that might be a good place to raise a family. Ashland seemed to be a good fit, but Cusick said their visit in the summer of 1981 sealed the deal. Soon thereafter Cusick’s husband sold his real-estate business, they sold their house and about eight weeks later Ashland was their new home. That fall, Cusick taught music at Lincoln and Walker Elementary while Tim Cusick got back into real estate. About 10 years later Suzanne Cusick took on her first administrative position as assistant principal at South Medford High School. She held that job for three years before Glencoe High School in Hillsboro hired her to be its principal. By then, the Cusick children — three girls and a boy — had all graduated from Ashland High. Now, they’re busy forging their own careers. There's a lawyer, a dentist, a systems administrator and a doctor. “We can thank Ashland schools,” she said. Cusick, who holds a doctorate in educational policy from the University of Oregon and a master's in music literature and vocal performance from the University of South Dakota, worked in the Hillsboro School District for about 15 years, half of that time as assistant superintendent. In 2008 she was named the superintendent of the Longview School District, from which she retired in 2014. Now, Cusick’s back in Ashland. The charm that drew her here some 35 years ago, she says, still exists. “I just have such joy when I drive home,” she said, “because I go down Mountain, and to look over to the left and see all those kids out in the field, it’s just so exciting. I love seeing it.”