School board interviews first of four superintendent candidates

Editor’s note: This is the first of four stories about candidates for Oskaloosa’s new school superintendent.

By DUANE NOLLEN

OSKALOOSA — Gregg Fuerstenau is a school superintendent in Taylorville, Ill., who would like to come back to Iowa and be Oskaloosa’s next superintendent.

Fuerstenau is the first of four superintendent candidates the Oskaloosa School is interviewing to replace retiring Superintendent Dr. Carolyn McGaughey. The School Board interviewed him Wednesday evening.

Fuerstenau has been the superintendent at Taylorville for four years after serving as superintendent in two Iowa school districts. Taylorville is a community of 11,000 people — about the same size as Oskaloosa — and Fuerstenau wants to live in a community of similar size. He is apprehensive about the budgeting process in Illinois where smaller school districts will likely take a financial hit in the coming year, so he’d like to come back to Iowa.

Oskaloosa School Board members asked Fuerstenau questions ranging from nurturing school culture to the challenges he has faced.

School Board member Laurie Palmer asked Fuerstenau about school culture and how his vision has impacted it.

“All students can learn. We have to provide opportunities for all students,” he said. If educators set high expectations, students will rise to them, he added.

School Board member Lin Yoder asked Fuerstenau about providing a safe, efficient learning environment.

“It’s up to the administration to provide a safe environment,” he said.

If there is a physical altercation between students at Taylorville, school officials call the police. Also, there are security cameras at the high school and certain areas of the junior high, such as the cafeteria.

School Board member Anne Whitis asked Fuerstenau how he has influenced the school and community.

Fuerstenau said the Taylorville school district recently had to downsize the budget and close two facilities. For this process, a citizen task force was formed for community input and an outside facilitator from the University of Illinois guided the six month process. The task force looked at everything from tax increases to programs and they toured all facilities. They eventually decided on closing two schools and consolidating the elementary program into the four remaining buildings.

“We came out of the process relatively unscathed,” he said.

Some benefits of the process was better transportation for students and school staffs were more cohesive, he said.

School Board member Susan Boxler asked Fuerstenau about how he fosters effective communication in the district.

Fuerstenau said he sends weekly emails to individual board members about legislative updates, he attends staff professional development sessions and talks to them face-to-face if a situation arises. He is very open with parents.

“My door is always open,” he said. “I take phone calls at home,” he said.

Fuerstenau also is open with the news media

“I try to be as open as possible with folks,” he said.

Herald Editor Duane Nollen can be reached by email at oskynews@oskyherald.com

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