Andy Tullis / The Bulletin file photoBend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Ron Wilkinson has announced he will retire.

Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Ron Wilkinson announced Tuesday he’ll retire at the end of the school year, and the district’s board is aiming to figure out who will replace him by the end of February.

The board accepted Wilkinson’s announcement at its meeting Tuesday night and outlined the process to recruit the district’s next superintendent.

Board member Peggy Kinkade said the district will invite recruitment firms to submit proposals for working with the district today and will ideally be advertising the superintendent’s job by Thanksgiving.

Kinkade said the board has tentatively decided to accept applications though Jan. 16. Semifinalists will be interviewed in early February, she said, and a group of perhaps three or so finalists will be invited to Bend to meet with district officials and appear at a public forum later in the month. By late February, the district intends to have its next superintendent selected.

Wilkinson, who turns 64 on Sunday, came to the district in 1998 as director of human resources. He was named deputy superintendent in 2000.

He was selected to take over as superintendent in early 2008 and assumed his role amid the beginnings of an often tumultuous period for the school district, one marked by continued student growth during a time of recession-related budget cuts.

Three elementary schools funded through a 2006 bond measure were completed during his tenure, and in 2013, the district persuaded voters to support another bond measure, which will result in two more schools being built.

Board chairman Nori Juba said Tuesday Wilkinson has accomplished a great deal during difficult times. Graduation rates have increased from 69 percent to 79 percent under Wilkinson’s leadership, he said, while the percentage of students passing math assessment tests has risen from 51 percent to 73 percent.

Juba said he admires Wilkinson’s “no excuses” attitude and “tireless focus on student achievement” and said he and others on the board intend to seek candidates who can bring similar qualities to the job.

“It’s a bittersweet time for us, but we have the benefit of Ron’s leadership for the rest of this year,” Juba said.

Wilkinson began his career in the McMinnville School District, teaching vocational agriculture and working with the FFA program, and moved on to work in five school districts around the Northwest, including as a principal in Crook County.

In 2012, he was selected Oregon Superintendent of the Year by the Oregon Association of School Executives and the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators. Outside his work with the district, Wilkinson and his wife, Gail, operate a llama ranch east of Bend.

Announcing his plans to the board, Wilkinson said he intends to remain hard at work through the end of the school year on June 30.

“I’m announcing now, I’m not retiring now,” he said. “I have a lot of work to do between now and the end of the year.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0387, shammers@bendbulletin.com