Six candidates from across the region and nation will make their case to be Kennewick School District’s next superintendent during public interviews on Jan. 28 and 30. 

The Kennewick School Board recently announced six preliminary finalists as potential successors to Superintendent Traci Pierce.  

Board members will publicly interview finalists from 5:30 to 8:45 p.m. on each scheduled day at the district’s administration building, 1000 W. Fourth Ave. 

The finalists are: 

• Joseph Castilleja, former superintendent of Mabton School District. 

• Matthew Mallery, superintendent of Mary M. Knight School District in Elma, Washington. 

• Christopher Nesmith, superintendent of Elma School District. 

• Davion Lewis, assistant superintendent of student services at South Bend Community School Corporation in South Bend, Indiana. 

• William Fritz, superintendent of Knappa School District in Astoria, Oregon. 

• Lance Hansen, superintendent of Lewiston Independent School District in Idaho. 

Members of the public are welcome to attend and observe the interview process and observers will have the opportunity to provide written feedback to the school board. Following the preliminary interviews, selected finalists will be invited to return for final interviews with district staff, students and community members, scheduled for Feb. 4-6. The new superintendent begin work July 1, succeeding Pierce, who will retire in June 2025. 

Pierce has led Kennewick schools since January 2020. Her salary was $299,445 in the 2022-23 school year, the most recent year of available salary data from the Washington State Fiscal Information database.