Cyndy Mika looks forward to new job as Kodiak Island Borough School District superintendent

Kodiak Island’s school board voted to hire a new superintendent in February. Cyndy Mika has been chosen out of a field of three candidates. She replaces Larry LeDoux who is retiring in June.

Cyndy Mika comes to Kodiak by way of Little Elm, Texas. She has 15 years of administration experience in the Little Elm Independent School District, and is currently superintendent there.

She was selected by the school district on Feb 15, during a special session. She was hired at $170,000 a year plus benefits on a three-year contract.

It’s not the first time she’s applied for the job. She had put her name forward in 2017, when superintendent Larry LeDoux was hired. Mika says that after her experience visiting Kodiak the first time, she was determined to try again.

“When the opportunity came, again, to apply, I really just remembered the experience I had last time when I was in Kodiak, interviewing, and how much I enjoyed the community and meeting the people, and really felt that it would be a community that my son and I could live in,” Mika said.

Mika says that one of the things that attracted her to Kodiak is how the district is “student-focused.”

“From what I’ve been able to tell so far, it seems to be very united in a vision to ensure that all students receive the best education they can. And you know, I think that Dr. LeDoux has really done an amazing job, bringing the school district back up,” Mika said.

Mika says that she wants to improve the school’s curriculum during her tenure as superintendent.

“That’s really going to be a goal of mine is to dig into the instructional curriculum that we provide our teachers to ensure that we’re providing them with the resources that they need to be successful in their classroom teaching their students,” Mika said.

Mika plans to tour campuses and meet with teachers this upcoming week when she flies north to visit Kodiak with friends and family. Mika was selected over Deborah Treece from the Chugach School District and Andrew Anderson from the Lower Yukon School district.