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Former G.C. superintendent finalist for USD 308 job
Published 6/16/2010 in Local News
By KEN STEPHENS
Special to The Telegram
Augusta Superintendent Jim Lentz told one group of Hutchinson school administrators Tuesday that if he's hired as USD 308's next superintendent, they can expect to see him in the classroom.
"The only way I know to find out what's going on is to get there," he said. "I guess people used to call it management by walking around."
However, Lentz said he won't be looking over their shoulders all the time, either. Nor should anyone fear that he's going to make sudden, sweeping changes.
"That's not what I'm about," he said. "What I'm about is trying to learn what we are doing extremely well, try to replicate that as many times and as often as we can. And if we're doing things that aren't working, we need to identify those things and eliminate them. We can't afford them anymore. We can't afford to waste people's time. But it's all incremental. You just have to start step by step and look at each one of the programs, each one of the schools, all the things we are doing."
Lentz met with Hutchinson administrators, teachers and members of the public Tuesday before having dinner and a formal interview with the school board in closed session that evening. Rick Kraus, USD 308's executive director for human resources, interviewed Monday, and Garden City Superintendent Rick Atha will be the final candidate to interview today.
After that, the board will try to settle on one of the three candidates and will probably dispatch a representative to the candidate's home district for a final assessment before announcing their decision.
Lentz, 67, has the resume offering the most experience of the three candidates. He has been either a superintendent or assistant superintendent since 1989 and was honored as the Superintendent of the Year by the Kansas Association of School Boards in 2008.
Lentz began his career in education as a teacher and coach at Fort Scott High School from 1969 to 1976. From '76 to '81 he was head football coach and athletic director at Fort Scott Community College. Lentz then moved back to Fort Scott High to serve as assistant principal and later principal from 1981 to 1989.
In 1989, he became assistant superintendent of schools in Great Bend. Three years later, he moved to Garden City as assistant and then deputy superintendent for 11 years.
In 2003, Lentz was promoted to superintendent in Garden City. He remained there until 2005, when he took the job as superintendent in Augusta.
Under Lentz's leadership in Augusta, the district approved a $48 million bond referendum, the district's largest ever. Two older elementary schools will be torn down and replaced by new schools, and every other building in the district also will get a significant overhaul.
But Lentz said he's proudest of student achievement in the Augusta schools.
"All of our schools have reached a standard of excellence in reading or math or both the last four years," he said. "We have two national blue ribbon schools, elementary schools, since I've been there. One of our schools won the National School Change Award, and there are only eight of those given out across the United States each year. So I'm very proud of our student achievement. I've been lucky, I guess. Everywhere I've worked I've had great people to work with."
Like every other superintendent in Kansas this year, Lentz had to deal with significant mid-year cuts in state aid.
He said the Augusta district had to cut $1.3 million from its budget, about 10 percent of its general fund.
"A lot of that was done through sitting down with all our administrative teams," he said. "We have what we call a success plan. What that is, is the board of education sets goals and we have a plan to achieve each of those goals.
"We looked at that program and said, 'OK, what's sacred to the board?' Their No. 1 goal is student achievement. That's our mission. So we're going to protect that classroom at all costs. So we start cutting things as far away from the classroom as we can get."
Lentz said he's interested in succeeding David Flowers as the Hutchinson superintendent because of the opportunity here.
"There are some exciting things going on right now in Hutchinson," he said. "The bond issue that you are just about to complete is a real statement from the community that they truly understand the importance of education, not just facilities but facilities for learning. This new facility here, the Career and Tech Ed facility is phenomenal. This is one of the finest in the state of Kansas, I'll assure you. So you have a lot to be proud of. Your community obviously cares about education, cares about learning. The staff I've met certainly do."
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