SJE hires new principal, loses superintendent

St. John and Endicott schools hired a new principal just in time to start looking for a new superintendent.

Last week, the cooperative school boards selected Mike Olsen, now an assistant elementary principal at Selah, to fill the position being vacated by Principal Rob Roettger.

This week, the school boards were set to meet to discuss the departure of Superintendent Rick Winters.

“We’ve got a real solid bunch of board members here who handle things the right way,” said Winters. “I’m sure they’ll do a great job with this.”

Winters has taken a job as the new athletic director for Southern Virginia University in Buena Vista, Va.

“We’re sad. We’re sad to go,” said Winters. “It’s just an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”

He said a job in collegiate athletics fits his career goals. Southern Virginia is also looking to jump up from NAIA to NCAA status, a move Winters said he was excited about.

Colfax High grads Sam and Matthew Mellor have both played on the Southern Virginia football team.

Winters has been superintendent of the two districts for the past six years.

“We have loved it here,” he said of his family. “It’s just been a pleasure to raise our children here in these communities.”

Winters and his wife, JaLynne, who taught as a substitute at the district, sent two children through the high school with daughter Allie set to graduate next month.

For Olsen, the position at St. John and Endicott is a return home to Whitman County. A 1993 graduate of Colfax High School, Olsen farmed on his family’s ground, and even showed cattle in the St. John stock show.

“I drove wheat truck through St. John and Endicott growing up, so I know those towns well,” he said.

Olsen said he jumped at the chance to apply for the SJE principal post.

“The schools are beautiful schools,” he said. “They’re really well taken care of. You can tell how much pride these communities have in their schools and in their students.”

Olsen received an agricultural sciences degree from Washington State University, his teaching certificate from Central Washington University and a master’s degree from Eastern Washington University.

Roettger has taken the job as superintendent at Lind and Ritzville where he will oversee a consolidation of the two districts.