The Banks School District will host a 45 minute forum on Monday, June 6 with the two finalists for the superintendent position that opened after current superintendent Jeff Leo announced his resignation earlier this year.
Leo told the Banks Post he plans to return to a teaching position.
According to a press release issued by the district, a field of 15 candidates selected from more than 30 applications was winnowed down to two finalists: Melissa Goff, currently an educational consultant and former school superintendent, and Brian Sica, currently holding the title of Administrator for Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment in the Beaverton School District, where he previously served as a school principal.
The forum, open to the public, will be held in the Banks Middle School cafeteria (12850 NW Main Street) from 4:45 to 5:30 p.m. Monday, June 6.
There, community members will hear from both candidates and have an opportunity to have small group discussions with the finalists.
“Milt Dennison, the lead search consultant from the Oregon School Board Association, reported that the Banks position attracted not only a large number of applicants but one of the strongest applicant pools he has seen in a number of years,” the district’s press release read.
After a review process involving school staff and community members, 15 candidates were invited to a Zoom interview with the Banks School Board. From there, five were selected for a second interview held May 31 and June 1, with the board selecting two finalists from those five.
Goff’s credentials include teaching stints in Mitchell and the Beaverton School District, and as an assistant high school principal spot and then a middle school principal in Bend. Following that, the Banks School District said, she moved into a director position in the administration of the Sherwood School District before being hired as an assistant superintendent at Portland Public Schools.
Following those roles, Goff took the top spot as a superintendent for four years at Philomath School District, then became the superintendent of the Greater Albany School District, where she was abruptly fired by the local school board in 2021, who gave no reason or cause for her dismissal at the time.
Goff is a graduate of Western Oregon University and Portland State University, according to the Banks School District, and completed her administrator licensure training at the University of Oregon.
Sica’s credentials begin in Idaho, where he worked as a coach and teacher in the Shelly Joint School District. His dissertation lists him as a chemistry and physics instructor there and later at the Hillsboro School District. In Hillsboro, he rose to become an assistant principal at Hillsboro’s Century and Hillsboro High Schools. Beginning in 2015, Sica served as a principal at the Beaverton School District before taking his present job there as the Administrator for Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment.
Sica received his BA in Chemistry Education from the University of Idaho and an MA in Science Education from Montana State University, followed by a Doctor of Education degree from the University of Oregon.
Chas Hundley is the editor of the Banks Post and sister news publications the Gales Creek Journal and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.
