To the editor:

What’s with the revolving door of principals at our high school? If we don’t get more stable leadership there, that school is really going to suffer.

The current principal is leaving a little after a year and a half on the job, and when the next one is hired, he or she will be the fourth new principal in five years. No organization can improve and move forward with that kind of turnover at the top.

We like to think of the island as having the best schools in the state, but measured in objective terms, our district is now sixth — behind Bellevue, Mercer Island, Lake Washington, Issaquah and Camas. U.S. News ranks Bainbridge High No. 5 in the state, behind Aviation High in Tukwila and three high schools in Bellevue.

That sounds pretty good, until you consider the socio-economic advantages we start with. Most of the parents here are affluent and well-educated. Just 7 percent of the kids at Bainbridge High are on the free lunch program, compared to 65 percent at Tukwila’s Aviation High and 34 percent at Seattle’s Garfield, ranked just two positions behind our high school.

The issue is really one of a lack of vision and leadership at the top. Three out of the last three superintendents here have been hired from within, and most of the school board members were either appointed to their positions or ran against little or no opposition. You can’t be innovative unless you are hungry, outward looking and have a strong mission, and that’s no longer the case here.

We can’t change the top leadership over night, but we can ask that it make a very careful and considered hire for this key position. There’s little reason, given the beauty of this place and very affordable housing in nearby waterfront communities like Hansville and Kingston, that we can’t attract the very best applicants. The primary deterrent is the sense of stasis. The only way to overcome that is to ask for more.

We, as the community, need to tell the district that we want a new high school principal who will take the school to the top.

ROD STEVENS

Bainbridge Island