MEEKER I On March 18, the the Meeker School Board announced two finalists had been selected for April 3 interviews for the next superintendent of Meeker schools.
The final two candidates are Christopher Robert Selle of Westcliffe, Colo., and Richard C. Walter Sr., of Colorado Springs.
The board spent an hour and a half in executive session the previous evening reviewing eight superintendent candidate applications. The board was assisted by then-acting superintendent Kathy Collins, superintendent search coordinator and district finance director Janelle Urista, and Karen Benner, a former Meeker School District superintendent. Benner was hired to return to Meeker briefly and help the board vet the candidates.
Selle is finishing his third year as superintendent of schools in the Custer County School District C-1, where enrollment is slightly smaller than Meeker’s. In Westcliffe, the district is 50 miles west of Pueblo at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
Previously, he spent two years as superintendent for the Limon School District. He has 11 years experience in education and six years as an engineer in the oil and gas industry.
Selle is a Colorado School of Mines civil engineering graduate. He also holds a master of arts degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs with emphasis in education leadership.
Walter has been superintendent of schools for the Miami-Yoder School District, which is quite a bit smaller than Meeker’s, composed of just less than 300 students, K-12.
Miami-Yoder is in Rush, Colo., some 33 miles directly east of downtown Colorado Springs
He has been a baseball, basketball and football coach, athletic director and principal.
Walter holds a bachelor’s degree in education from Central Washington University and a master’s in special education and a certificate in school administration from Eastern New Mexico University. He also has a certificate in educational leadership from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
Walter served in the U.S. Army for four years.
Both candidates will spend the day in Meeker on April 3 being interviewed by five selected groups—teachers, district accountability committee members, administrators, members of the district leadership team (teachers), and support staff.
A tour group will also lead the candidates through the district’s school facilities and buildings.
The day will conclude with interviews by the school board at 4 p.m., a special meeting of the board at the administration building to which the public is specifically invited.
