Shelley Redinger, superintendent of the Richland School District, has announced that she will retire from the district, six months after the district’s board of directors declined to provide a routine extension to her contract. 

Redinger said in a message sent to staff and parents on Jan. 23 that she will leave once her current contract expires at the end of June 2027 to pursue other opportunities. Her message stressed the district has shown resilience despite challenges in recent years and is on solid footing and moving in the right direction. 

“As we look ahead, I believe the timing is right to thoughtfully transition leadership and allow the next superintendent to build on this momentum,” she wrote. 

Her departure comes after a fraught tenure at the district’s helm, which included navigating through the Covid-19 pandemic, combative school board members, a hack of the district’s servers, the fatal shooting of a paraeducator and an operating budget that suddenly was deep in the red and led to staff cuts. The budget challenges were cited by school board members in the summer of 2025 as part of the reason why they declined to extend her three-year contract for another year. 

Voters also rejected a bond measure to build a new high school and several other projects in the November 2024 general election. Those same voters received ballots this week for the Feb. 10 special election asking to renew two levies that supplement state funding for programs and operations and also pay for technology improvements.