Pick the best one, then back the pick

Douglas County School Board trustees are working their way through the last interviews for school superintendent.

Dave Jensen and Mary Bull offer two very different backgrounds.

Former Vallejo District superintendent Bull has been superintendent at a school district with 16,500 students, and 1,600 full and part-time staff members, easily more than double the size of the Douglas.

Vallejo is home to 125,000 people, more than twice the size of Douglas County's population.

Jensen is an assistant superintendent in the Humboldt County School District. The district is about half the size of Douglas County's with around 3,300 students and slightly more than 400 staff members. Humboldt County is home to 18,000 people.

Jensen has worked his entire 15-year career in Humboldt County. A 40-year educator, Bull was superintendent for Vallejo for two years after serving as an assistant superintendent in Carmel for three years.

Bull has lots of experiences in schools of varying sizes in at least three states. Jensen has 15 years experience in a small Nevada district.

The school board could not have two more different people to choose from.

After our recent experience with a superintendent hired from the big city, it would be easy to turn to someone like Jensen for the job. It would also be easy to overlook Jensen's ability to work in the claustrophobic quarters of a district where everyone knows everybody else, when they're not just related outright.

Our biggest concern is that trustees recognize that their decision will affect our schools for years to come. They are going to have to support the new superintendent through what may be a rocky transition.

Otherwise in 2013 we'll be right back where we started, paying an administrator to go away while trying to find someone new.