Well-known educator is in the running for top West Ada job

A former Idaho deputy superintendent of public instruction and district superintendent is in the running for the superintendent's job in West Ada School District.

Trustees say they are inviting Mary Ann Ranells to spend a couple of days touring the district in the next couple of weeks.

Ranells is the first candidate trustees have announced as being under consideration for the job to replace Linda Clark, who resigned in October, saying she was the victim of a board "witch hunt." The board never accepted her resignation and terminated her contract last month.

The board, which has been reviewing applications ,says it will make public the names of candidates it plans to invite to the district for a closer look. They revealed Ranells as a candidate near the end of a long board meeting.

Ranells, deputy superintendent under Marilyn Howard from 2001 to 2004, is well known and respected in education circles.

"She's about as good as it get," Don Coberly, Boise School District superintendent, told the Statesman. Ranells is recognized as an instructional leader and is "one of the finest educators I know," he said.

Ranells served as superintendent of the Lakeland School District in North Idaho before resigning in 2014 to spend more time with family, the Coeur d'Alene Press reported in 2014. She was focused on the students, teachers and parents, Coberly said.

She began her education career in 1973 as a high school teacher. Trustee Russell Joki said he remembered her as an English teacher in Nampa School District in the early 1980s while he was superintendent, but he lost contact with her.

Trustees said Ranells approached them while they were attending the Idaho School Boards Association meeting in Coeur d' Alene last month, after trustees posted the job at the gathering.

Ranells has been a senior consultant for Solution Tree, a global organization for school and school district professional development, trustees said.

She has been an educator for 41 years and has been a director of curriculum, assessment and special education, according to Solution Tree's website.

Trustees said she lives in Rathdrum.

This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 12:18 AM with the headline "Well-known educator is in the running for top West Ada job."