Superintendent in Between
By Charlie Boss, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio
Dec. 3–The students at Mark Twain Elementary stood by the school’s entrance, ready to welcome their district’s new leader with gifts and memorized words.
But Westerville’s new superintendent was running an hour behind schedule.
Once J. Daniel Good arrived, it was easy to see why.
After thanking the students for their gifts, he zipped through the school, shaking hands with lunch ladies and popping into every classroom to meet teachers and students.
“I’m the one that calls snow days,” Good explained to Joyce Melnik’s third-grade class.
In two days, he toured almost all of the district’s 23 schools and offices in the same manner.
“This is who he is,” said Westerville spokesman Greg Viebranz, who worked with Good when he was a Worthington principal in 1997. “He wants to know the people.”
But it’s not clear how much he’ll be in the district in the coming weeks.
Good, who has been superintendent of Wooster schools since 2004, plans to stay in the Wayne County district until his successor is found — which could be as late as next fall.
Meanwhile, he’ll use the 20 consulting days Wooster allows and personal time to visit Westerville and get acclimated, earning $600 per visit. Wooster does not pay Good for the 20 consulting days allowed in his contract.
Once he permanently joins the district, Good will earn $155,000 a year.
Experts said such arrangements between school boards and new superintendents are no longer rare because more superintendents are leaving or retiring in the middle of a school year. In Westerville’s case, George Tombaugh left in September for a job with an agency that encourages cooperation among central Ohio school districts.
Typically, a school board pays the new superintendent per day until he or she can go full time.
Good, 46, anticipates working at least 45 days for Westerville during the transition to meet with civic and community leaders, business professionals and all of the district’s leadership teams.
“The goal is to have a clear understanding of the vision of the community of Westerville City School District and to capture strategic priorities that need to be in place to achieve that vision,” Good said.
School boards usually are willing to help superintendents make the transition from their former district, said Tom Ash, director of governmental affairs for the Buckeye Association of School Administrators.
“Where that doesn’t happen, it does put a board of education under the gun to fill that position by the time that person is leaving,” he said.
Other Franklin County districts with openings as of Dec. 31 have filled superintendent posts from inside. South-Western schools chose Deputy Superintendent Bill Wise to succeed R. Kirk Hamilton, and Reynoldsburg picked Assistant Superintendent Steve Dackin to take the reins from Richard Ross.
Superintendents who start in January said the move is easier than it would be if they started at the beginning of the school year because budgets already have been established and districts are just starting the planning process for the next school year.
“The district was up and running,” said Worthington Superintendent Melissa Conrath, who replaced Rick Fenton in January 2006. “I was able to observe the culture, get a sense of the district’s initiatives, priorities and direction it was going.
“I found it helpful to come in the middle of the school year versus summer,” she added. “The pace is much quicker. You have to get in and start running more quickly.”
cboss@dispatch.com
“The goal is to have a clear understanding of the vision of the community of Westerville City School District.”
J. Daniel Good awaiting successor in Wooster
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio
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