Touchet superintendent finalists answer community questions at forum

Touchet students and families had the opportunity this week to meet the two finalists in the running to succeed Superintendent Robert Elizondo, who will retire this summer.

The finalists, Kris Duncan and Tim Dickey, talked about their work history, their leadership styles and how they would handle the job of leading the district.

The school board has not yet decided who the next superintendent will be but has planned a special board meeting for Thursday, June 11.

Duncan is currently the principal at Pioneer Middle School in Walla Walla, and Dickey, a former graduate of Touchet High School, is an instructional coach at Liberty Elementary School District in Arizona.

When asked how they would keep teachers and programs accountable, both candidates said they would be in classrooms regularly, watching instruction and giving feedback.

Dickey said he would have conversations with teachers during planning meetings to talk about what material is being put in front of students in the classroom and whether it aligns with state standards.

"For me, it's just been visibility in the classroom, having open communication and honest communication with the teachers, communicating what are our expectations and what do we hope for our students and what are the steps that we're going to take to reach those outcomes?" Dickey said.

Duncan agreed, saying that a superintendent's presence in the classroom is central. She said the teachers she works with now would say it's not unusual for her to pop into their classrooms on a regular basis.

"My objective there is to give positive feedback, to build some relationships and build some trust," Duncan said.

One community member specifically asked Duncan about her support for the LGBTQ+ community and how she thinks those ideas would be accepted at Touchet School District.

Duncan said that as a school leader, her main objective is to make sure that every student in the building feels safe and is treated with dignity and respect.

"It's not my job to tell a student who they are. It's not my job to dictate to a student how they should feel or how they should believe. My job is to make sure they're safe to figure out who they are on their own," Duncan said. " I would go back to what I said earlier, that primarily my job is to uphold Washington state law. So wherever Washington state law falls, I am legally and ethically obligated to uphold those laws."

Another community member asked candidates how they would handle their role as a mandatory reporter. Dickey said he understood the reason for the question was because while he was principal at a school in Arizona, there was a teacher who was found to have had sexual relationship with a 13-year-old student. The teacher was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

"In my first year as a principal, there was a situation where I did have students with concerns regarding a relationship between a teacher and a student," Dickey said. "I was investigating and performing a thorough investigation in that moment and wasn't able to find anything that in my mind required in a report. And then ultimately, the parent came to me with evidence, and as soon as I had the evidence, the report was made immediately."

Dickey said there were no charges ever pressed against him and that he maintained his position for three more years after that incident.

"Ultimately, parents and families continued to trust me and knew that I had their students' best interest in mind," Dickey said. "Could I have handled the situation more appropriately? Yes. Have I beat myself up about that for years? Yes. And did I learn from that experience? Yes. And will I always operate under an abundance of caution moving forward? Absolutely."

Meanwhile, one student at the forum asked both candidates how they would make sure Touchet School is a place that students want to be at every day.

Dickey said that he was proud of his school as a former Touchet student, and his goal is to make sure every child feels that way.

"I think it's about coming together with the students, with the staff, with the community, and having conversations around what do we envision for our kids? What do we want it to look like? What do we want it to feel like?" Dickey said. "And (it's about) having some conversations around building our collective mission and vision. What do we envision for this school as a community, and what do we want as a community?"

Duncan said student voice would be critical. At her current school, she has a student advisory committee that regularly meets with her to give their perspectives about everything that's going on in the school.

"I think too often we make a lot of decisions without asking students what makes you feel celebrated, what makes you want to come to school, what makes you feel like this is a great place," Duncan said. "And I want to make sure that students have as much a voice as anybody else in how we make Touchet a really great place to come to school. So I would ask you to think about what we can do together to make Touchet a great place."

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This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 10:06 PM.