More schools chiefs are leaving their posts
Superintendent turnover being seen statewide
With four Lake Country area school superintendents planning to leave their districts after this school year, Lake Country could be seen as a microcosm of the situation statewide, where high superintendent turnover is widespread.
Locally, it started with Arrowhead Union High School District Superintendent Laura Myrah announcing her retirement in December 2022.
In January, K-8 Hartland-Lakeside School District Superintendent Nancy Nikolay announced her resignation.
Nikolay’s resignation was followed by K-8 Swallow School District Superintendent Melissa Thompson announcing in February that she planned to step down.
In April, K-8 Stone Bank School District Superintendent Ryan Krohn announced his resignation to become the K-12 Palmyra-Eagle School District’s next superintendent.
Of those four districts, only Arrowhead has found its next superintendent. The district hired current Cedarburg School District director of human resources Conrad Farner for the job.
To meet its need for a new superintendent, Stone Bank is not only looking for an individual candidate, but is also exploring the option of sharing administrative services with another Lake Country area K-8 district.
“Casting a wide net and exploring qualified candidates in several scenarios means the following: We have done a public posting ... for candidates. We have reached out to other school districts for a shared superintendent. We are exploring an interim superintendent. We looked at search firms. We are looking at a full time superintendent,” said Stone Bank School Board President Jeff Smith.
On May 8, the Stone Bank board met with the Merton School Board in closed session to discuss the possibility of sharing administrative services. No action was taken.
Smith said the school board has also contacted the North Lake and Lake Country school districts. “So far we haven’t received clear direction from either on what their interest level is,” he said.
Hartland-Lakeside School Board President Tiffany Hawley declined to comment on the board’s search.
“I feel keeping our process confidential is important to our overall outcome and is simply respectful to all of our candidates,” said Hawley in an email to a reporter.
Swallow School Board President Kevin Scott declined to comment when reached by phone about that board’s search.
The Lake Country area school districts are in northwestern Waukesha County.
Superintendent turnover trending statewide
The turnover of superintendents can also be seen statewide.
At the start of the 2022-23 school year, 107 of the 421 Wisconsin public
school districts had a different superintendent compared to the previous school year, 65 of them in their first year as superintendent. That’s a huge increase from 66 changes in superintendents, with 47 of them being first-year superintendents at the start of the 202122 school year, according to Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators executive director Jon Bales.
Here’s what the three prior school years of superintendent turnover data looks like based on data Bales provided:
● 2018-19: 77 total changes, 45 of them first-year superintendents
● 2019-20: 82 total changes, 51 of them first-year superintendents
● 2020-21: 59 changes, 39 of them first-year superintendents
Bales said 2018-19 and 2019-20 were part of a “continuing upward trend” in superintendent turnover. The number of turnovers for the next two years, 2020-21 and 2021-22, were suppressed because superintendents wouldn’t leave their positions during the peak of the pandemic, Bales added.
The big increase in turnovers in 2022-23 reflects some of the previous two years’ bottleneck being released, combined with community and board pushback on previous years’ COVID decisions, he said.
He predicted superintendent turnover for the 2023-24 school year will be “closer to trends pre-COVID in 2018-19 and 2019-20.”
The challenges of being a superintendent
Bales said a superintendent’s job “has always been difficult,” saying the job is a 24/7 commitment for the superintendent and their family. In today’s world, the expectations for academic achievement, social and emotional well-being, safety and health are “very high,” he said.
“Accountability for all things within a district falls to the superintendent,” he added.
Bales said a superintendent’s job is to be “the steward” of a school district’s community values. That is more challenging now than ever, given the division in communities around social issues like gender identity and equity.
“That makes it difficult for an executive whose job is to try to assimilate all that and try to identify what’s the common ground, what’s the shared value system for all the kids that we’re trying to promote,” Bales said.
In an ideal working relationship, the board determines the outcomes reflective of the community’s shared vision and interest, and then the superintendent develops ways to get those things done, Bales said. When the board follows that role, he said things work smoothly, and the superintendent doesn’t need the board to make day-today operational decisions.
“Where you see clashes is if you have a board who wants to influence those day-to-day decisions, who wants to have a particular ideological agenda driven, then that creates the conflict often between the superintendent and the board,” Bales noted.
Broadly speaking, a change in leadership happens when either the board or superintendent feels the district would be more successful with a change.
Ben Niehaus, director of member services for the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, said districts are seeing more candidates with less experience applying for jobs
“It’s going to be interesting to see in five, 10 years whether those individuals are going to be able to sustain for 30 years in that role with all that responsibility,” Niehaus said.
Attracting candidates to Lake Country
Chad Schraufnagel has been on both sides of the issue, having served on the Oconomowoc Area School Board before leaving in June 2022 to become superintendent in the Lake Country School District.
He said the Lake Country area’s geographic desirability could be a draw for candidates.
“I think geography plays a lot, a lot in it. If you are in other parts of the state where it may not be as populous or you may not have as much access to things, it could be an impact. I think anything out in this area here is going to attract a lot of people,” Schraufnagel said.
But salary could also be a consideration. Here’s how superintendent salaries in the area rank:
● Laura Myrah, Arrowhead Union High School District: $208,508
● Mike Cady, Pewaukee School District (K-12): $202,859
● Michael Sereno, Oconomowoc Area School District (K-12): $199,000
● Stephen Plum, Kettle Moraine School District (K-12): $180,500
● Nancy Nikolay, Hartland-Lakeside School District (K-8): $173,250
● Ronald Russ, Merton Community School District (K-8): $157,782
● Melissa Thompson, Swallow School District (K-8): $151,114
● Chad Schraufnagel, Lake Country School District (K-8): $146,580
● Liesl Ackley, North Lake School District (K-8): $143,398
● Jeanne Siegenthaler, Richmond School District (K-8): $142,000
● Ryan Krohn, Stone Bank School District (K-8): $139,455
By comparison, here’s a sampling of superintendent salaries in other Milwaukee area school districts:
● Keith Posley, Milwaukee Public Schools (K-12): $279,961
● Mark Hansen, Elmbrook School District (K-12): $213,717
● James Sebert, Waukesha School District (K-12): $209,009
● John Thomsen, Whitefish Bay School District (K-12): $203,858
● Matthew Joynt, Mequon-Thiensville School District (K-12): $201,760
● Demond Means, Wauwatosa School District (K-12): $195,000
● Marty Lexmond, West Allis-West Milwaukee School District (K-12): $190,692
● Greg Kabara, Nicolet Union High School District: $185,859
● Jeffrey Dellutri, Fox Point-Bayside School District (K-8): $184,358
● Timothy Joynt, Maple Dale-Indian Hill School District (K-8): $145,517
● Alyson Weiss, Glendale-River Hills School District (K-8): $144,200