Shane Hood’s commute to work will be much shorter next year.

The Cashion Board of Education voted in a special meeting last Monday to hire Hood as the district’s next superintendent.

He’ll succeed Leon Ashlock, who is taking the same position at Muldrow Public Schools after two years at Cashion.

Hood has spent the last year as superintendent at Aline-Cleo Public Schools.

He’s still remained attached to Kingfisher as his wife Janet teaches at Gilmour Elementary, his oldest daughter Kylie is a senior at KHS and his youngest daughter Addison is a freshman.

Hood informed the Aline-Cleo board and staff of his impending career move last week.

“I am thrilled,” Hood told the Times & Free Press.

“Cashion is known for its amazing academic excellence as a well as community support and as the school district continues to grow, we will work together to ensure that all our students’ needs are met while supporting our staff.”

“Grow” is certainly a term well-known around Cashion, one of the fastest- growing communities and school districts in the state.

The district has seen its enrollment increase by close to 300 students in the last decade.

That number is expected to continue to climb as new houses spring up throughout the community with plans for more in the coming years.

In an attempt to catch up to some of that growth, Cashion’s board proposed a 10-year, $21.5 million bond issue last May.

Although a majority of voters were in favor (580332), the 57.24 percent fell short of the 60 percent needed to pass it.

Hood’s ability to see a path forward for Cashion was important, said board President Jessica Ballard.

“I think he has a lot of vision and that definitely sold us,” she said.

“We talked about growth and what we need to do to manage that. He was very strategic with his responses.”

BallardaddedthatHood’s “energy is something the community will respond well to.”

Hood was hired in Kingfi sher prior to the 2017-18 school year and worked under three different superintendents during his tenure.

He was brought in as the Heritage Elementary principal by Jason Sternberger. He was also the district testing coordinator and the next year took on the roles of district technology director and elementary curriculum director.

A shuffling of staff just as the 2020-21 school year was getting started saw Hood serve as principal at both Heritage and Gilmour simultaneously while maintaining his other director duties.

Makylah Tollefson was hired as Gilmour’s principal by then-Superintendent Dr. Daniel Craig during the 2021-22 year, easing Hood’s workload.

However, he began 202223 as both the principal at Gilmour and Kingfisher Upper Elementary.

Some shuffling by current KPS Superintendent David Glover moved Erin Michael from the high school to KUE, allowing Hood to focus solely on Heritage.

He continued to maintain his roles as district testing coordinator and elementary curriculum director before taking over at Aline-Cleo.

Hood called his time at KPS “an incredible experience.”

“I’ve had the opportunity to serve and learn under three remarkable superintendents with different leadership styles,” Hood said last spring. “My time working with them as well as the other wonderful principals here at KPS has given me the opportunity to learn many diversified approaches on how to lead a district.”

Those experiences as well as his year at Aline-Cleo - and even his work with different church organizations before getting into education - were well-received by the Cashion board.

“He has a good variety of experience from the different principal roles to superintendent and with the church organizations,” Ballard said. “We have high hopes it will be a really good transition.

“I think we have a lot going for us at Cashion. We’re excited to bring him on board and see how we can make it better.”

Hood, too, is ready. “I strongly believe the best is yet to come and that it’s a great day to be a Wildcat,” he said.