New Supervisor Sean Snider, photo by ACUSDFor those who haven’t heard the good news, Sierra-Plumas Joint Unified School District (SPJUSD) has a new Superintendent, Mr. Sean Snider.

When Superintendent Berardi stepped down in June from his role as district superintendent to focus more on Downieville Schools, the search immediately began to find his successor. Finding a quality superintendent can always be challenging for school districts, taking many months, especially for rural districts like ours. We are very fortunate to have such an experienced administrator, who understands the intricacies and challenges of small rural counties, take the reigns. Superintendent Snider most recently came to us from the Amador County Office of Education, where he was the Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services.

Snider grew up in Wisconsin, where he attended the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, receiving his undergraduate degree in Elementary Education and a minor in Natural Sciences. After college, he and some close friends who shared a love of the outdoors and adventure decided to make a road trip to explore California. Falling in love with the beauty of California, he never left, staying in Amador County and taking on a teaching job at Pioneer Elementary School teaching 4th & 5th grade. Just a few years into teaching, the Principal, also his mentor, decided to retire and encouraged Sean to consider taking his job. Reluctant at first, as he was 29 and the youngest teacher in the school, he “took the leap,” saying “he just wouldn’t take no for an answer.” Pine Grove Elementary School in the district also needed a principal, so for a while, Snider assumed the job as Principal of both schools. The experience certainly prepared him for his new job. In 2007, he was asked to assume leadership of a larger school at Sutter Creek Elementary near Jackson. Following that role, Snider was hired as the Director of Student Services for Amador County Unified School District until he assumed his last role as Assistant Superintendent.

Superintendent Snider has been on the job for about six weeks, taking his time to build relationships and learn the particulars of this district and Sierra County. Speaking with him about his priorities as Superintendent, Snider wisely explained that he comes into the district with no plans to change what is already working. Instead, Snider wants to keep what is working moving forward and make minor improvements as he learns where best to focus his efforts. He plans to spend his first six months slowly analyzing before setting any agenda. One of the biggest challenges recognized by Snider is addressing deferred maintenance issues in our school buildings, with the district’s smaller budget making major infrastructure improvements a challenge. Snider also plans to build relationships with out-of-county community colleges to provide online dual and concurrent enrollment for our high school students, as many other school districts offer.

In the meantime, you will likely see him driving back and forth from Loyalton to Downieville, where he will be one day per week. As his girlfriend Rebecca still resides in Amador County, taking care of family members, they will split time between Amador County and Loyalton on the weekends. His daughter just graduated and is now attending Cuesta College, where he hopes to dash down to see her play basketball. As an experienced road warrior, there is no doubt he will make some games. Snider looks to be just the leader our district needs as we face future challenges, so welcome aboard, Superintendent Snider!