david vanderyacht

VanderYacht to be Lynden superintendent

March 31, 2022 at 11:42 a.m..

From student to superintendent, David VanderYacht will be the new head of the Lynden School District.

The board announced their unanimous decision on March 31, following a week of rigorous interviews, community forums and visits by the superintendent candidates.

At his March 28 community forum , VanderYacht focused on his commitment to mending the community and his commitment to supporting students.

“There’s a need to feel belonging, to feel a part of a community,” he said. “When that happens, you can achieve and grow.”

VanderYacht believes that his unique position as a lifelong Lynden local will help him to mend the rift in the Lynden district that has grown over the last few years of upheaval.

He told Cascadia Daily News that the community response has been overwhelmingly positive and that many people are grateful for his willingness to lead.

“He is a quality person, and we know that he's a good man with a good heart,” Lynden High School teacher Layne Hutchins said after VanderYacht's forum. “That means a lot.”

He said once he starts, he's going to focus on two areas: returning to more intentional work after making reactive decisions during the pandemic and coming up with a comprehensive communication plan, internally and externally. 

VanderYacht is a graduate of Lynden High School and went on to receive his bachelor's and master's in education from Western Washington University. He holds a superintendent certificate from City University in Seattle. VanderYacht has spent his entire education career with the district as a middle school teacher, elementary school principal and assistant superintendent. He said he was influenced to take on the role by former superintendents and leaders in the district who sought to involve the community in their work. 

He will take over for interim superintendent Mike Stromme on July 1 and will be in charge of managing the district’s 3,500 students and five schools.

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Lynden narrows superintendent candidates to three

Vanderyacht, peterson, riggs head to community forums.

• March 27, 2022 2:35 p.m.

Lynden School District has narrowed its search for a new superintendent to three candidates: David VanderYacht, Tavis Peterson and Lisa Riggs. The three moved forward following interviews of six finalists on March 26.

The new superintendent will manage approximately 3,500 students and 400 staff across five schools. The Board of Directors will announce its selection on March 31.

Each of the three finalists will spend a day visiting schools and finish with a community forum at Lynden Middle School at 6:15 p.m. Attendees can attend to submit questions and feedback to the board. VanderYacht will appear on March 28, Peterson on March 29 and Riggs on March 30.

Local administrator VanderYacht has served as assistant superintendent in the Lynden School District since 2016. Prior to that, he served as principal of Isom Elementary School for 12 years and Assistant Principal of Lynden Middle School for two. He started his career in education as a middle school teacher in 1992. He received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from Western Washington University.

Peterson since 2012 has been with the Wapato School District in Yakima County, where he is currently the assistant superintendent of Human Resources and is the District Tribal Liaison. He has worked as an elementary school principal in the district and started his career in education as a school counselor with the Union Gap School District in 2000. He holds degrees in psychology and school counseling from Central Washington University and a superintendent certification from Washington State University.

Riggs has worked as superintendent of over 2,500 students at the Sweet Home School District in Linn County, Oregon since August 2021. Prior to that, she worked in various administrative roles at schools in Oregon, Texas, Nevada and Washington, where she started her career as a middle school language arts teacher in 1991 in the Port Angeles School District. She holds a doctorate in educational leadership from San Diego State University, two master’s degrees in education and a bachelor’s in English and Education from Washington State University.

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David VanderYacht: New Lynden High School KGMI News/Talk 790 - Podcasts

KGMI's Jason Upton talks to Lynden Schools Superintendent David VanderYacht about measures on the upcoming special election ballot, including a bond for a new Lynden High School.

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Community Joins for Safety + Security

When David VanderYacht, Lynden Schools superintendent, put out the call for community members to join the newly created Safety & Security Task Force he wasn’t lacking for interest. VanderYacht is now joined by roughly 30 community members—current Lynden Police Officer Tanner Holland and former police officer Clark Bourgault co-lead the group—all focused on student and staff safety. 

“We want to be the community that walked the walk and not just talked the talk,” Bourgault says about working with VanderYacht to put together the task force to respond to the different world current students are growing up in compared to the past. “We want to be on the front foot of making change so our classrooms and schools can be the safest places possible to foster great learning environments.” 

VanderYacht says the goal of the task force is to make recommendations to the district for safeguarding students, staff and community members. 

After meeting with parents a seed was planted to “bring together people from a range of backgrounds to develop consensus on topics related to school safety and security.” Then, during work on the Bond Planning Task Force, Bourgault encouraged VanderYacht to take the formal step to create a task force focused on security. And as Holland began discussing school safety best practices as part of the research in cost estimates to replace Lynden High School, VanderYacht says replicating the successful Bond Planning Task Force with one focused on safety and security made sense. 

“It is critical that we have people who are willing to commit time to keeping our children and educators safe for generations to come,” Holland says. “Me being a part of this committee shows the community and the school district that Lynden Police and other local law enforcement are taking the safety of our children seriously and plan to do everything we can to ensure they do stay safe. I’m so happy to be in the forefront of school safety and I hope this committee sets a precedence throughout the state.” 

“The participation from the community is exceptional,” VanderYacht says. “It really blew me away. It’s been a goal of mine to design opportunities to include community members in the community’s schools and this opportunity tapped into a lot of expertise and people are willing to volunteer their time to make sure our schools are the safest they can be.” 

Holland says seeing so many people willing to donate their time shows how much the Lynden community cares about their children. 

With over 80% of the 30 applicants currently serving in law enforcement or with extensive experience in safety and security, the representation from across federal, state and local jurisdictions offers a “clear strength of the group.” Plus, the inclusion of parents, grandparents and health professionals helps diversify the members.

“My hope for this group,” Holland says about the series of seven meetings from October into April, “is to come together as community members and parents no matter what your background is and generate the best practices that can be put into place within the school district for generations to come so that our children and staff can come to school every day and know we as a community and law enforcement have put our best practices forward. I believe this is the first step in our school district being leaders when it comes to school safety.” 

“The group is pretty amazing, with years of experience in all different facets of security and safety,” Bourgault says. “Can we start doing something different, better, new that allows us to say we have done our due diligence and we have done our absolute best to keep our schools safe?”