By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County will be losing two school superintendents at the end of the year. Haven USD 312 Superintendent Clark Wedel and Hutchinson USD 308 Superintendent Mike Folks both announced their retirements. It's a trend that is moving through the entire state:
“We’ve got just under 30 school districts that we are working with at the moment to fill vacancies in superintendent positions,” Austin Harris with the Kansas Association of School Boards said. “That is higher at this point in the year that we normally see.”
Harris says, while there is some differences in being a superintendent in a large school like Hutchinson compared with a small school like Haven, it really comes down to what kind of school district you want to lead.
“It can be a different type of candidate who is looking at those jobs,” Harris said. “Small schools and big schools each have their own unique set of challenges and their unique set of opportunities.”
Harris says the KASB is also seeing superintendents announce resignations or retirements much earlier in the year, which he says is a help to districts. The unfortunate thing about the situation in leadership in the state school system is that if one district hires a new superintendent often it means another district is losing theirs.
“Superintendent openings tend to have a lagging effect. When you fill one position that’s often a superintendent from another school,” Harris said. “Throughout the next couple of months we’ll continue to see superintendent jobs open as the market shifts and people take new opportunities across the state.”
Harris says that most superintendents who are leaving are doing so because they have reached retirement age. Harris says the KASB is ramping up leadership programs and other methods to try to cultivate the next group of superintendents for the state, especially in western Kansas.
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