Rasmussen, an assistant superintendent for Wichita, Kan., City Schools, addressed the community as the only candidate remaining during the Friday, Jan. 8, candidate forum.
“I wasn’t looking for Middletown, and it wasn’t looking for me,” Rasmussen said during his 15-minute presentation. “But, the more I understood what challenges Middletown faces and the opportunities we have to get a high achieving school district, the more I thought what I have to offer with my experience could benefit the community.”
Within the past 48 hours, the two other finalists dropped out of contention to be Middletown’s next superintendent. Butler Tech CEO Bob Sommers told the board Thursday he accepted a job with a Michigan-based charter school company.
Less than 24 hours later, former Mansfield City Schools superintendent Lloyd D. Martin withdrew his name from the candidate list after telling the school board he felt as though the community’s focus was too much on his controversial past and not enough on the children of Middletown.
Before the forum, Middletown Teachers Association president Suzanne Larsen said the next superintendent has a “major challenge” ahead.
“Morale is low, and there has been an erosion of trust,” Larsen said. “Whether it’s Mr. Rasmussen or someone else, the next superintendent needs to be a good team builder and know how to connect with the community.”
Rasmussen said if he is chosen to be superintendent, the first few months would be spent learning about Middletown’s vision for the future.
“I’m going to be honest,” he said. “I don’t know what Middletown needs. You do. My job isn’t to come in and know. My job is to enact your beliefs. But, I’m a fast learner, and I’ll get the answers.”
Board President Marcia Andrew announced the board will meet in executive session at 7 p.m. Monday to discuss the hiring process.
The board will discuss its options on whether or not to hire Rasmussen based on his interview and forum performance.
She said she was not sure if action would be taken immediately following the meeting.
Rasmussen: Relationship between schools, community is key
Greg Rasmussen’s message to Middletown was plain and simple.
“There has to be a trust between the community and the schools” he said during the superintendent candidate forum at Middletown High School on Friday, Jan. 8. “If you can get it, it’s a win-win situation for all. If it’s not there, it’s a lose-lose situation.”
Rasmussen, 50, is where most job applicants hope to be: the last man standing at the end of a long search process. But it is a position he wasn’t expecting to be in when he left Kansas earlier this week to be interviewed.
The other two Middletown City Schools superintendent finalists — Butler Tech CEO Bob Sommers and former Mansfield City Schools superintendent Lloyd D. Martin — stepped away from the position at the last moment.
Rasmussen said he was surprised at the turn of events, but the circumstances didn’t change his plans to introduce himself to Middletown.
A philosophy of building relationships
Rasmussen and his wife, Nancy, are both lifelong residents of Kansas. They have two children: daughter Erin, 23, who was married last year and now lives in Boston and son Neal, 19, a freshman at Kansas State University.
Rasmussen has worked in public education for almost 30 years. His most recent position has been as Wichita Public Schools’ assistant superintendent of elementary education. In his five years on the job, he has been responsible for 58 elementary schools, 25,000 students and more than 2,500 staff. He also has served as the district’s executive director of instructional technology, worked with the Kansas Department of Education and as a teacher and assistant principal with two other Kansas districts.
Rasmussen highlighted a number of career accomplishments he felt best represented how his experience relates to Middletown.
• In January 2008, the Wichita school board unanimously voted to end the decades-old practice of busing to desegregate its schools.
“We wanted to have neighborhood schools,” Rasmsussen said. “There was a lot of community discussion about this and we were able to accomplish it.
Rasmussen said the result has been more one-race schools and said the district still wonders if it did the right thing. But, the effort has helped the district look at the issue of diversity in a different way.
• Recently, when Wichita Public Schools changed its math curriculum and teaching practices to better reflect higher standards, there was some division between administration and the teachers.
“This changed the way some teachers taught math and they felt they lost some of what they wanted to do in the classroom,” Rasmussen said.
But after working together and providing each other with feedback, Rasmussen said teacher morale improved. According to a teacher survey, the percentage of teachers who felt they were trusted improved from 48 percent to 79 percent between 2007 and 2009. The number of teachers reporting high morale went from 63 percent in 2007 to 90 percent in 2009.
Students’ math scores also improved: 10 percent district-wide, 16 percent for black students and 20 percent for Hispanic students.
“You have to have a balance of high expectations for students,” he said “But, you also have to care about the people. I’m particularly proud of what we accomplished.”
Rasmussen said he is excited about the possibilities Middletown has to offer him as an educator.
“Middletown is a community that is primed for change and has a lot of potential,” he concluded. “There are many different kinds of people here and the town has a lot of pride to have the best it can. Right now, it may be wrestling with how to get there, but there is definitely a sense of what they want.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4542 or mrossiter@coxohio.com.
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