NCESD welcomes Dr. Michelle Price

Dr. Michelle Price is the new superintendent of North Central Educational Service District 171 and she graciously allowed us access to her during a typically busy work week.
Price answered a few questions posed by the Wenatchee Business Journal as well as improvised "on the fly" in order to give readers a better perspective of her and her goals for the huge district.
Dr. Price said, "First and foremost, I am a proud wife to my husband, a mom to our four adult children, and a grandma to three (so far). I am a graduate of Central Washington University with a BA degree in Special Education and a Master's degree in School Administration. I earned my Doctorate degree in School Administration from Washington State University. I just finished my twenty-ninth year in public education with twenty-two of those years as a principal, assistant superintendent, and superintendent in the Moses Lake School District.
"The opportunity to be the learning leader who provides quality service and support to improve the educational outcomes for every child every day is something I believe I have the professional experience and heart for. Over the years, I have been blessed to work with teams of innovative and talented professionals who share my passion for children and public education. I believe that my servant leader attitude, collaborative approach, and ability to develop and maintain professional relationships was a perfect match for the needs in the North Central region. 
"North Central Educational Service District (NCESD) serves over 44, 000 students and 3,000 staff in twenty-nine school districts across Central Washington. The demographics in central Washington include high rates of poverty (over 55 percent across the region) and approximately 45 percent Hispanic many of whom are second language learners.
"NCESD provides leadership and support in a regional service model.   The needs of the regional school districts drive the support and programs provided by NCESD. Services provided by the ESD include: Administrative, early childhood, human resources, language acquisition, professional development, special education, school nurse corps, STEM services, curriculum development and staff development in core content areas, technology, and worker’s compensation (to name a few)."
She listed her priorities as follows:
"My goals for NCESD for this year include:
Relationships: To walk side-by-side with the districts we serve, continuing strong core and teaching and learning services, and to customize and personalize solutions.
Communication: To create a system to assist districts across the region to collaborate within and among each other.
Leadership: Build system-wide instructional and operational leadership; facilitating processes to grow leaders at all levels in our system.
Advocacy: help define and develop system-wide support for developing systems that allow students to be healthy, safe, engaged, challenged, and supported by qualified caring adults.
"Some challenges that we are faced with include recruiting, training, and retaining, high quality staff. There is a teacher shortage across the nation which hits our rural communities especially hard. We are working in partnership with several universities to create innovative models that will help us to grow our own teachers in the area.  
"The state funds core programming for each of the nine educational service districts in the state. All other revenue is generated by grants and a fee-for-service model.
"The 2017-2019 operating budget (SSB5883) includes K-12 enhancements. School districts in our region will see a few changes in this next school year, but most of the changes begin in the 2018 – 2019 school year. The ESD will help districts operationalize their new budgets and will support the requirements that will need to be put in place for districts to access the funding," concluded Price.