Community Seeks Change in Neenah School’s Leadership

By Duke Behnke, The Post-Crescent, Appleton, Wis.

Mar. 9–NEENAH — Community leaders and parents want a new superintendent from outside the school district who will bring about significant change and openness to Neenah schools.

The sentiment came through loud and clear from two focus groups assembled Friday to help define the search for a successor to Supt. James Wiswall, who will retire in June.

“We really desperately need someone with outside experience, who isn’t protecting the Neenah status quo, to bring in other opinions and other experiences and revamp (the system),” Christine Mau said.

Carol Wilhelm echoed the call for new blood and a fresh perspective.

“I definitely think we need to go outside the district,” she said. “We haven’t done that since we hired George Grigsby in 1975.”

Mau said the next superintendent has an opportunity to gain celebrity status by leading Neenah through its financial challenges and onto meaningful improvements in education.

“They can leave here or stay here and retire a rock star because we are open and poised for a significant, notable change,” she said.

Louis Birchbauer, a search consultant with the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, guided the focus groups through a series of questions to understand the qualities desired in a new superintendent.

The answers will be compiled to direct the Board of Education in its selection of Wiswall’s successor.

The participants said they want the next superintendent to possess strong leadership skills and a clear vision for the future. The extent of the vision from the 2006 referendum, they said, was simply to get to the next referendum.

They said Neenah should aggressively pursue options for alternative education like charter schools. Appleton has 14 charter schools. Neenah has one.

“If you are moving into the community, especially if your children are little and you don’t know if they are going to be a musician or scientist yet, you go to Appleton because you have a choice of charter schools that specialize in those areas,” Mau said.

The participants said they want a leader who is honest and open and will improve community relations by listening to concerns.

They also called for a superintendent with the expertise and willingness to tackle Neenah’s financial crisis, including a $48 million unfunded liability for its early retirement program.

“Any superintendent who can’t provide that in the interview process shouldn’t be hired,” Jay Schroeder said.

Pete Weyenberg said Neenah needs a superintendent who will stand up to the Neenah teachers union. He said he was appalled a few years ago when some Neenah teachers brought their contract dispute into the classroom.

“They played the students against the administration,” Weyenberg said.

Birchbauer said Neenah appears to want a superintendent who will make decisions “in the best interest of children, not in protection of the system as it currently exists.”

Birchbauer said he would be pleased if 10 to 15 people applied for the position.

“We are going to get a number of candidates — that might be a handful — who can fit the issues,” he said. “I don’t know that you are going to get somebody who will fit every one of the issues.”

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Copyright (c) 2008, The Post-Crescent, Appleton, Wis.

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