Though BVUSD’s new Superintendent of Schools Dr. Nancy Wright was only appointed to BVUSD’s top position this week, and won’t assume her post until October 19, she tells KBHR that the Big Bear Valley already feels like home. Dr. Wright’s career in education spans nearly 30 years in Colorado, during which time she served in small, mountain communities, such as Manitou Springs, Colorado (at 8,500’), which she says is like a “carbon copy” of Big Bear. That district’s student population was roughly 1,500, whereas BVUSD currently serves about 3,000 students at two high schools, one junior high, and four elementaries. After a lengthy career in Colorado, in roles as teacher, administrator, and superintendent, Wright had retired to Florida for about a year, before being summoned back to the mountains to serve as interim superintendent at two different districts in Colorado. It was during this time that BVUSD found Dr. Wright during a nationwide search for a superintendent to replace Carole Ferraud, who left in September. Big Bear School Board members Dr. Ken Turney and Bev Grabe traveled to Colorado where, BVUSD interim superintendent Rudy Macioge notes, they interviewed over 40 individuals, including teachers, administrators, students and parents, before definitively deciding that Wright was right for Big Bear—and she feels the same way. The day after her September 16 appointment was made official, she told KBHR, “I am absolutely thrilled. This is a marvelous school district, and a wonderful community.” And, she adds, she is “absolutely” happy to be back in the mountains (and close to her youngest stepson in San Diego), rather than retired in Florida. “I came up the pass,” Dr. Wright says of her first drive into the Valley, “and said, ‘I’m home!’” (For more information on Dr. Wright, see our September 17 posting.)
