JOHN PARKER

Background

Superintendent
Central Valley School District

Dr. John Parker has broad leadership experience as a teacher, instructional coach, principal, director, and area superintendent and is an exceptional collaborative leader, who builds the capacity of others, models bold and courageous leadership action, while leading with compassion and accountability. He is dedicated to personal and systems improvement and is innovatively minded, emboldening the academic potential of all learners. 

Dr. Parker began his leadership journey as a secondary science and mathematics teacher for 15 years in the Puyallup School District. He taught honors courses and served as curriculum leader, department chair, and many district committees. He coached several sports, but especially enjoyed coaching football, gymnastics, and baseball. Dr. Parker and his wife, Ashley, ventured internationally and spent three years at Shanghai Community International School (SCIS) in Shanghai, China as a teacher of Advanced Placement Chemistry and completed his Principal certification at Lehigh University during this time. At SCIS, he served as dean of students and was promoted to high school principal, graduating the school’s first class of seniors. 

With the birth of their two youngest children, he and Ashley returned to the states, where he enjoyed working in the following leadership roles over ten years: director of English language learning and categorical programs, director of technology, director of instructional leadership, and chief academic officer, where he served as an area superintendent overseeing operations of nine schools with 8,000 students. He received his doctorate in Education Leadership and Policy Studies through the University of Washington’s Leadership for Learning program, emphasizing equity and social justice. In 2019, they had another opportunity to travel overseas and serve in administrative roles at Colegio Nueva Granada, an international school in Bogotá, Colombia. There, Dr. Parker served in a senior leadership role for three years as director of innovation before a planned return to the U.S. in June 2022. 

Dr. Parker is excited and ready to lead the Central Valley School District and bring his broad, local and international experience and leadership to such an outstanding school system and serve the students and community.