Madison Schools superintendent to resign this summer

The leader of Madison Schools has announced she is resigning.

Lisa Tuttle-Huff told the Journal-News on Thursday she has decided to leave the Madison superintendent’s position effective July 31.

“Ending this chapter at Madison is not an easy decision. I have poured my heart into serving this district for the past three years,” said Tuttle-Huff, who in 2019 was given a five-year contract by the district’s school board through 2024.

“I am extremely proud of what we have achieved and what we are working to achieve in the future. I will forever be grateful and a supportive champion of Madison, however, I have chosen to pursue another avenue at this time,” she said.

The rural Madison school system is one of the smaller districts in the area with an enrollment of about 1,500.

“I am overwhelmed with pride in what this administration has accomplished for the youth of Madison Schools over the last three years,” Tuttle-Huff said. “By every single measure of our work, the youth have a significantly better understanding that being ready for the workforce and college is paramount. I congratulate all who work at Madison for putting students first in everything that they do.”

“I appreciate the board, staff and students whom I have worked with and know that the next superintendent will continue to pursue excellence in the district.”

No members of the Madison Board of Education responded to email messages seeking comments on the superintendent’s coming departure or information as to when they will begin to solicit candidates to fill the position.

Some of the issues inherited when starting the job in 2018 included some still-lingering contentiousness in the rural community brought on in large part by a student shooting and wounding three classmates in 2016. That armed attack on the district’s single, pre-K-through-12th-grade campus, later led Madison to become one of the first in the region to train and arm some school staffers.

But in August 2019, Tuttle-Huff received what was then a rare five-year contract – compared to the more common three-year employment pact – from the school board, paying her an annual salary of $110,000.

Her time so far with Madison has seen two lawsuits filed against the district – one concerning the armed staffer policy and the other accusing the school system of improperly holding its school board public meetings.

The district won the public meeting litigation and the lawsuit against its policy of arming some trained staffers is pending before the Ohio Supreme Court.

Officials at the Butler County Educational Services Center did not respond to messages Thursday asking if the center would – as it has done in the past for smaller districts in the county – help conduct Madison’s search for a superintendent.

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