Whitefish Schools’ Superintendent Pick Falls Through
The board chair attributed failed negotiations to the candidate’s “failure to disclose salary and benefit expectations, despite clear communication from the district.” The board plans to consider appointing an interim superintendent for the 2026-2027 academic year.
By Mariah Thomas
The Whitefish School District announced at a special board meeting this week it discontinued its search for its next superintendent and will discuss appointing an interim top administrator for the 2026-2027 school year, following failed negotiations with the board’s selected candidate, Dr. Jennifer Fee.
In a statement she read to the board, chair Elizabeth Pitman attributed the failed negotiations to “the candidate’s failure to disclose salary and benefit expectations, despite clear communication from the district.”
“Throughout an extensive search process, the Whitefish School District was fully transparent regarding our compensation parameters and made multiple good faith attempts to establish mutual expectations early,” Pitman said. “Dr. Jenny Fee failed to engage in meaningful and decisive compensation conversations until after a formal offer was extended, at which point the candidate’s expectations proved incompatible with the district’s approved compensation package.”
The Whitefish School District first mounted its search for a top administrator in November, following superintendent Dave Means’ announcement that he would retire at the school year’s end. Means himself first took over the role as superintendent following a failed search for a permanent top administrator in 2020. He will have completed six years in the role when the school year finishes.
Fee, the school board’s pick to take over the role, hailed from Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she has served as Kent Intermediate School District’s assistant superintendent for instructional services the past two years. She boasted more than two decades in educational leadership roles.
Fee was the lone finalist the board considered from out-of-state in its search to replace Means. Local candidates Michele Paine, the principal of Flathead High School, and Brandy Carlenzoni, the former superintendent of Fair-Mont-Egan School, a rural district in the east valley, were also finalists for the position.