Pekin plans to hire interim superintendent by July 1

PACKWOOD — The Pekin Community School Board is working feverishly to hire an interim superintendent after learning in May that Pekin will no longer share a superintendent with Sigourney.

Pekin School Board President J.J. Greiner said the board has called for a special meeting June 7 to establish an interview process for superintendent, as well as an interview schedule and interview questions.

Kevin Hatfield is the shared superintendent between Pekin and Sigourney, but he will cease to be Pekin’s superintendent after June 30, because that’s when the sharing agreement ends. Sigourney holds the superintendent contract. Hatfield was hired by the two school districts last summer to replace former superintendent Dave Harper.

Greiner said the school board plans to have an interim superintendent in place by July 1, so the board won’t have to worry about delegating the superintendent’s responsibilities to other staff. He added that state law requires school districts to have a superintendent.

“We’re in a unique situation where we will have all brand new administrators this year,” Greiner said. “We’ll have a new elementary principal, high school principal and dean of students. We want someone there to guide them and be in the through this transition. The board is very excited for our new administrators, and we want to support them in any way we can.”

Greiner said the board will likely hire an interim superintendent to serve one year. This winter, the board will start a superintendent search again that will be conducted according to a more normal timeline, unlike the short timeline the board must follow to hire an interim superintendent this month.

Pekin’s special school board meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 7 in the Pekin High School Media Center. After discussing the superintendent search process, the board plans to go into closed session.

The Pekin School Board was not planning on having to find a superintendent. The Sigourney School Board approved the superintendent sharing agreement at its meeting on April 13, and the Pekin board did likewise that month. The two boards had a joint meeting on May 2 to discuss language in the contract. On May 11, the Sigourney board voted 7-0 to end the sharing agreement with Pekin.

Greiner said the move came as a surprise to him and the other Pekin school board members. He said Pekin and Sigourney have shared a superintendent for nearly a decade, which has allowed them to split the superintendent’s salary as well as each district getting about $50,000 from the state, which provides incentives to school districts to share positions.

Greiner said the board may hire a superintendent search firm this winter, but because of the tight deadline, the board will conduct the search itself for the interim superintendent.

“We’re very excited, and we’re working out tails off to get this done,” he said.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com