Tomjack Tapped to Lead Centura

Centura Public Schools completed its search for a new superintendent last week, officially announcing the hiring of Dr. Ashley Tomjack to the position on Friday, March 24th.

The hiring of Dr. Tomjack comes as the result of a search the district commenced with search firm McPherson & Jacobson, LLC earlier this year. The Centura Board of Education had unanimously accepted the resignation of outgoing Superintendent Ryan Ruhl during a February 1st special meeting and had announced the commencement of the hiring process almost immediately thereafter.

In early February, the search firm had distributed an anonymous community survey to school district patrons in the hopes of gauging the qualities said patrons wanted their new superintendent to possess.

Dr. Tomjack had been one of sixteen applicants to the position.

On March 15th, members of the Centura Board of Education had selected two finalists— Dr. Tomjack and Johnnie Ostermeyer, a high school principal at Crofton Community School— from among these sixteen. The two finalists, both Centura graduates, were interviewed by the board of education, several district staff, and community members on Thursday, March 23rd.

“Numerous stakeholder groups will have the opportunity to meet the final candidates and submit input to the board about each of them,” said a March 15th press release from McPherson & Jacobson.

Tomjack, who is a 2005 graduate of Centura, has served as the executive director of curriculum, instruction, assessment and professional learning at Grand Island Public Schools (GIPS) since July 2020.

The instructor had initially worked as an elementary teacher at GIPS and then Elkhorn Public schools, before spending two years as an administrative intern at Millard Public Schools. From 2018 until 2020, she had been the principal of Blumfield Elementary School in Omaha, part of Ralston Public Schools.