PALMER — The Mat-Su school board voted unanimously Tuesday night to hire a new superintendent: Randy Trani, an administrator in Oregon who grew up in Cordova and taught in small school districts here.
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Trani currently serves as superintendent of Corbett Schools, a district about 22 miles from Portland with more than 1,100 students in three schools. The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District has more than 19,000 students and 46 schools.
A school district spokeswoman on Wednesday said Trani’s start date and salary have yet to be decided. The board is still negotiating his contract.
Trani replaces outgoing Superintendent Monica Goyette, who agreed last year to step down after the board amended her three-year, $175,000 contract to end her time as superintendent in June. Goyette will serve out the rest of that contract at Cottonwood Creek Elementary, where the current principal is retiring, district officials say.
The board began the superintendent search with 23 candidates selected in a nationwide search and announced last week that Trani was the lone candidate after several others removed themselves due to COVID-19, according to a post on the district website. “The process required modification due to the current pandemic, resulting in a primary candidate and revised process.”
The school board drew national attention for a vote last month to remove five “controversial” books from upper-level English elective reading lists. The board is expected to revisit that decision at a meeting next week.
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