The Board of Education appointed Lyndsay Huntsman as the new superintendent during a special session Wednesday morning.
Huntsman is the former director of the Career and Technical Education and Park City Centers for Advanced Professional Studies, or PCCAPS, programs. She has previously been a teacher, assistant principal and principal.
Huntsman said she's looking forward to creating safe spaces for students, opening communication with the community and ensuring transparency.
“It's impossible to move forward without being transparent. It's a must-do,” she said. “In the past, we haven't been as transparent as we could have been, and I'm in a position now where we can do better and we must do better and we will do better.”
Huntsman said she feels anxious, excited and grateful to take on the role of superintendent.
“We have a very supportive community, incredible teachers in the classroom and amazing kiddos that we serve each day and I'm just looking forward to moving us in the right direction,” she said.
Board President Meredith Reed said she and Vice President Nick Hill have been speaking and listening to staff, parents and other community members since the election in November to understand what they want in a new superintendent. The board eventually asked the community for feedback through a survey and began working with the Utah School Boards Association to get guidance and input on how best to proceed.
“We'd really just started with looking internally at who would be best to fill that and then if we hadn't had good results from that process, we would have moved on to some other things, but we did,” Reed said.
Reed thanked former Interim Superintendent Caleb Fine for quickly taking on the difficult position.
“He's done a great job of really shifting the tone around the district and being present in our schools and our community,” she said.
However, Reed said the board felt Huntsman was a better fit for the position.
“The experience that Lyndsay has had across administrative positions, across programs, we really just felt that what Lyndsay brought to the table and her leadership style was what we needed for permanent superintendent,” she said.
Fine will aid in the Huntsman’s transition to superintendent. He said he looks forward to working with her for many years in the district.
Before becoming the interim superintendent, Fine was the principal of Treasure Mountain Junior High. However, the school will be decommissioned at the end of this school year. Eighth-grade students will attend Ecker Hill Middle School and ninth-grade students will move to Park City High School.
Fine said he’s unsure what his new role in the district will be, but he plans to help Huntsman settle in and looks forward to finding a new place.
