Coeur d’Alene Public Schools names Shon Hocker superintendent

Shon Hocker, who has led school districts in Wyoming and North Dakota during the last 14 years and has roots in Idaho, was named Monday as the new superintendent of Coeur d’Alene Public Schools.

Hocker succeeds Steven Cook, who leaves July 1 to take over the Bend-LaPine District in Oregon.

“The Board looks forward to great things to come,” said board Chair Jennifer Brumley.

On Monday night, the board was scheduled to approve a three-year contract with Hocker that would pay him $165,000 annually.

The Board met over the weekend to consider two finalists, Hocker and Kate Orozco, assistant superintendent of elementary education and instruction in Coeur d’Alene.

“The Board was honored and grateful to have two outstanding candidates for superintendent,” Brumley said.

Hocker has been superintendent of Dickinson Public Schools in North Dakota since 2018. The district has about 4,500 students and 650 staff.

Prior to that he was superintendent of the Big Horn School District in Cowley, Wyoming, from 2007 to 2018.

From 2004 to 2007 he was principal of Shelley High School in Shelley, Idaho.

Hocker received his doctorate in educational leadership from Idaho State University in 2016 and his master’s degree from ISU in 1999.

“I am honored to have been selected as the new superintendent for Coeur d’Alene Public Schools,” Hocker said in a prepared statement. “It is clear that Coeur d’Alene has a powerful sense of community. We are looking forward to becoming immersed into your wonderful community and participating in all that it has to offer.”

Hocker said that while touring schools in the district, he was “impressed by the learning environment and engagement of the students and staff.”

“I have always believed that public education, when done well, provides an opportunity to meet each student where they are and move them forward to their path of promise and opportunity,” Hocker said.

Brumley said she believes that Hocker will help the district further its “Portrait of Graduate” program, which according to the district strives to give high school graduates “not only strong content mastery but other important skills and traits, or what we’ve dubbed the “six Cs.”

They include content knowledge, communication, creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and character.