Ybarra hires her former boss

State Superintendent Sharri Ybarra makes another hire from Mountain Home — this time it’s her former boss.

Tim McMurtrey square
Tim McMurtrey

Mountain Home Superintendent Tim McMurtrey will be named the State Department of Education’s Performance Officer/Strategic Planner on July 1. Details of his contract will not be revealed until next week so it’s unclear today what McMurtrey will be doing and what he’ll be paid.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have access to the details of his contract, including scope of work, because it is currently with the attorney general’s office for legal review,” said Jeff Church, chief communications officer for the State Department of Education. “I will be able to provide it when he begins at July 1.”

The Mountain Home School Board accepted McMurtrey’s resignation in October 2014, effective July 1. The board named Deputy Superintendent James Gilbert as his successor. McMurtrey was Mountain Home’s superintendent since 2005.

Ybarra worked under McMurtrey as Mountain Home’s federal programs director until she was elected as state superintendent in November 2014.

Ybarra has made several hires with Mountain Home connections.

  • Mountain Home’s IT director Will Goodman was hired in January as the state’s chief technology officer. He resigned after just five months on the job to return to Mountain Home.
  • Tim Corder is Ybarra’s special assistant. He was a Republican state senator from Mountain Home and served in the Idaho Legislature for eight years. He was a member of Ybarra’s campaign team.
  • Kelly Everitt, the department’s public information specialist, is a former Mountain Home newspaper editor.

 

Jennifer Swindell

Jennifer Swindell

Managing editor and CEO Jennifer Swindell founded Idaho Education News in 2013. She has led the online news platform as it has grown in readership and engagement every year, reaching over two million pageviews a year. Jennifer has more than 35 years of experience in Idaho journalism. She also has served as a public information officer for Idaho schools and as a communication director at Boise State University. She can be reached at [email protected].

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