Cardinal’s Pedersen named Superintendent of the Year

ELDON – Joel Pedersen, superintendent of the Cardinal Community School District, has been named the 2019-20 Iowa Superintendent of the Year by the School Administrators of Iowa.

SAI Executive Director Roark Horn said, 'Joel is a leader who exemplifies what amazing things can be accomplished when the culture of a learning community is laser-focused on its students. At Cardinal-due in large part to Joel's influence-they see everything through a lens of ‘Why not?' It takes a great leader to build and continuously inspire this environment. His ability to facilitate this is why Joel is an outstanding representative as Iowa's Superintendent of the Year.”

Pedersen remarked that it is an honor to be recognized in this fashion, but he doesn't want to hog the spotlight.

'An achievement like this is not mine alone; my students, staff, team, and community deserve the recognition because without their support I would not be where I am today,” he said. 'With dedication and determination, we lead together so that all kids will succeed. Thank you to them and thank you for this honor.”

Prior to becoming Cardinal's superintendent in 2010, Pedersen was middle school principal at Davis County Community School District in Bloomfield. He began his career as a fifth grade teacher at Chariton Community School District. A graduate of Buena Vista University with a bachelor's degree in elementary education, Pedersen also earned his master's in education administration and specialist's in educational leadership from Drake University.

Pedersen grew up in Ottumwa, and graduated from its high school. His first love was basketball, so he got into teaching with thoughts of becoming a lifelong basketball coach. At Chariton, he coached all manner of sports such as middle school football, assistant varsity track and varsity basketball. At Davis County, his coaching career continued as he led the boys varsity basketball team.

He enjoyed his coaching career and it taught him a lot about leadership. At the same time, he realized coaching was tougher than he imagined.

'If you're winning, everybody's happy,” he said. 'But when you're losing, they're not. I found out through that process that there were other things I enjoyed besides coaching.”

During his time at Davis County, Pedersen worked under a number of great leaders who inspired him to become a superintendent. They were superintendents Anne Morgan and later Sam Miller, and elementary principal Davis Eidahl, now the superintendent at Solon.

'I can still call them to ask how they would handle a certain situation,” Pedersen said. 'It's nice to have colleagues who are there for you when you need them.”

Since Pedersen became superintendent at Cardinal, the district has undergone major changes, which Pedersen is quick to credit the school board and community for. During the past nine years, they have invested $11 million in infrastructure improvements through ballot initiatives and school board decisions.

'I think our campus is as nice as anybody's because of the support of the board and the taxpayers,” Pedersen said.

Some of the major improvements have been the construction of a safe room that serves as a tornado shelter and elementary cafeteria. That was possible through a $500,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Association that funded about 70 percent of the project. Another has been upgrades to the elementary school's heating, ventilation and air conditioning system to make it more efficient and healthy.

One of the most notable improvements was the construction of the Cardinal Activity Center, a state-of-the-art facility in between the school's football, baseball and softball fields. It has a turf field, which allows teams from various sports to practice inside, and is large enough to accommodate the archery team and marching band.

'It is quite a building. It rivals that of any school district in the state of Iowa,” Pedersen said.

Above all, Pedersen said he is most proud of the fact that the improvements of the last decade have changed the culture at Cardinal to focus on positivity.

Pedersen was nominated by his peers and selected for the award by a committee of Iowa superintendents. Administrator of the Year award recipients will be honored at a governor's awards ceremony in late spring and SAI's Annual Conference next summer. He will also represent the state in the National Superintendent of the Year Program sponsored by AASA, The School Superintendents Association.