A year after the Sisters School District announced that Sisters High School Principal Joe Hosang would be moving to a position at the district office, the plan is coming to fruition.

The move was scrapped last spring after it became clear that COVID-19 would continue to wreak havoc into the 2020-21 school year, and that Sisters High School (SHS) would need the stability of keeping Hosang at the helm.

Hosang will move to direct the human resource and curriculum departments for the district.

Ten years after arriving in Sisters with his wife, Kim, and sons, Ethan and Tanner, Hosang is ready for the change and grateful for the chance to stay in the community he has grown to love.

Hosang acknowledges that the demands of being a building leader are taxing.

“Being in the head position is demanding and a change like this allows me to still contribute, but in a different way,” he said.

“I’ve certainly become more relational and I’ve grown to love Sisters. One huge reason for the move to the district office is my hope to retire as a Sisters School District team member and I don’t think I had another 10 years in me to remain as a principal.”

His decade-long tenure in the position of principal is the longest in school history.

“My years at SHS and working with the staff and community has helped me improve my leadership skills around relational capacity, and over that time I have come to find that humility and integrity are by far the most valuable characteristics a leader can have,” he said.

The posting for Hosang’s replacement has a deadline of March 5, according to superintendent Curt Scholl and many applications have been received. Staff members will help in narrowing the applicants to be interviewed by March 12. Interviews are scheduled for March 17 and 18 and will include some parents, students, and staff in what Scholl considers a very thorough process.

The district hopes to have a candidate hired by the end of the month.

Scholl said, “Joe has done a great job as our high school principal and we are looking forward to having him join the team at the district office.

“Now if we can just find a superwoman or superman to fill Joe’s shoes we’ll be in great shape,” Scholl said.

Scholl says the ideal candidate will be one with, among other things, “great pedagogy, strong relationship skills with staff, students, parents and community, an understanding of what it means to be an integral part of the Sisters community, and the ability to inspire.”

Even after coping with challenge after challenge to make education happen during the year of COVID, Hosang says he believes the high school is in a very stable and healthy position, which made his decision to make the move easier.

“The teaching staff and support staff are very strong and the systems we have put into place to meet the needs of students continue to have positive results even in these trying times,” he said.

Hosang will oversee curriculum development and standards for the district as one portion of his job.

“With so many state educational initiatives and benchmarks being redefined it is important to have someone focused on the alignment of our curriculum K-12,” he said.

His other duties will involve taking over the human resource director duties that have been provided by the High Desert Education District in recent years. Hosang will work closely with Tracy Suckow, the human resource specialist for the district.