Todd Kleinhans settling into new role as Lakeland Union superintendent
By Eric Johnson
Minocqua, WI, September 05, 2008 --
For the story, go to Lakeland Times.
As the 2008-09 school year dawns at Minocqua-based Lakeland Union High School, there's a new look to the district's administrative team as former six-year LUHS principal Todd J.A. Kleinhans settles into his new role as district superintendent and successor Jim Bouché takes over as school principal.
Kleinhans, district superintendent since predecessor Michael Dailey ended his eight-year tenure on May 23, wore both administrative hats until Bouché came on board as principal July 1.
Dailey, a 14-year district veteran who served as LUHS's associate principal and systems administrator between 1994-2000, retired to pursue private sector career opportunities in Green Bay with his brother-in-law, who owns a manufacturing business.
The path to the superintendency
The search for Dailey's successor came to a close on Jan. 28, when the nine member LUHS Board of Education voted unanimously to approve Kleinhans's hiring as the district's new superintendent.
Kleinhans lives in Arbor Vitae with his wife, Kim, a school social worker at Minocqua-Hazelhurst-Lake Tomahawk School. The Kleinhans' have one son and three daughters - Caleb, a Ripon College math major and aspiring teacher; LUHS senior Cassie; LUHS freshman Carley; and Cailen, an AV-W kindergartner.
Kleinhans was chosen from a competitive field of five finalist candidates that also included MHLT superintendent James N. Ellis, School District of Stratford superintendent Scott G. Winch, Racine Unified School District assistant superintendent Warren Baugher, and Nekoosa High School principal Robb W. Jensen, a former School District of Rhinelander superintendent.
Announcing Kleinhans' appointment, LUHS board president John Lisowski praised the selection of Kleinhans, calling him the board's "pre-eminent candidate throughout the interviews."
"The fact that the decision was unanimous speaks volumes for Todd - that he was the best candidate of the five," Lisowski noted at the time. "In the interview process, his passion for kids and his enthusiasm for improving Lakeland Union High School really came through - and those were the qualities we were looking for as we look forward to moving the district from good to great in the near future ... I have every confidence in his ability to be a positive leader in our school and our community."
Prior to joining LUHS as principal in July 2002, Kleinhans worked administratively as principal of Mondovi High School from 1998-2002 and as associate principal of Sheboygan South High School from 1996-98. Before beginning his administrative career, Kleinhans taught physical education and coached at Kewaunee High School, Wausau East High School and UW-Stout, among other schools.
No stranger to the Lakeland area, MHLT alumnus Kleinhans spent nine years as a child growing up on the shores of Lake Katherine in the town of Hazelhurst.
Kleinhans' father, Jim, served as editor of The Lakeland Times under publisher Donald Walker in the late 1960s and 1970s. His mother Penny, who started her teaching career at Lac du Flambeau Public School, was one of the pioneering female school superintendents in Wisconsin, eventually logging nearly 20 years as superintendent for several state school districts.
An orderly changing of the guard
Reflecting on the recent transition, Kleinhans praised the district office staff and Dailey for their "tremendous job" in facilitating an orderly transition in the superintendent's office.
Kleinhans, who now sits on the Board of Education's policy and negotiations committees, said the "very supportive" Dailey had done a "wonderful job" mentoring him into the superintendent's role over the course of four months, immersing him in the myriad internal and external aspects of the job.
Also helpful, Kleinhans said, has been his ability to tap into a unique personal professional resource - an extended family steeped in the education profession.
"Having had a family involved in education, I've had wonderful role models and mentors," Kleinhans noted, recalling his numerous conversations with aunts, uncles and his mother over the past several months. "Having them available as a resource has been valuable to me."
Another support, he said, have been the neighboring superintendents at LUHS' four feeder elementary/middle schools.
"They've been wonderful to work with," he said. "They've been very open to receiving the new superintendent on the block - very professional, very collegial, very welcoming, lots of wisdom. It's really been a neat situation and I've been very blessed that way, that's for sure."
"I've got the best gig in the world"
Embracing the challenge inherent in assuming the superintendent's mantle, Kleinhans said he's enjoying his new role at LUHS.
"It (being superintendent) is everything that I had envisioned it to be, plus some," he said. "I'm enjoying it ... If there's ever an ideal situation to have your first superintendency, I think this is probably as close to ideal as it can be. Having the opportunity to have been in the district for the last six years has given me a leg up on a lot of the issues, a lot of the situations, a lot of the 'how does it work' type things. What a great situation - a supportive Board of Education, a strong administrative team within the high school, an excellent teaching staff and an outstanding student body. I've got the best gig in the world right now, I really do. It's exciting."
Kleinhans said he's faced a "very steep" learning curve in his new life as district superintendent, noting he still "continues to learn every day."
Part of the transition, he noted, is learning to detach from his longtime role of principal and focus on his new role as district superintendent.
"I'm trying very hard to make sure that I understand the separation between high school level business and district business," he said. "I thinks it's very important ... that [new LUHS principal] Jim [Bouché] is seen by the students, the staff, the parents and the community as the high school principal."
Finances, school improvement and public relations are high priorities
As he settles into his new role as superintendent, Kleinhans said his work will largely center in three "paramount" focus areas - close attention to budget and finances, providing "best possible" 21st century educational programming to students and increased communications between LUHS and its various Lakeland area communities.
Among Kleinhans' budgetary goals is to live within the district's means. While the district is financially "positioned well for the next several years," Kleinhans said the district faces a number of significant challenges moving forward.
"I'm concerned about the budget - where we're going to be financially over the next couple years," he said. "Budget and finance is an area that I will have to pay a lot of attention to ... It's really interesting, when you get from one chair to the other, how conservative all of a sudden you tend to be in terms of trying to save a few bucks."
Among those challenges Kleinhans faces is an ongoing drop in district enrollment, which fell from 918 students in 2007-08 to an estimated 865 students this year. Tuition counts, among other factors, determine the amount of state funding received by Wisconsin school districts.
Based on enrollment figures at LUHS's four feeder elementary/middle schools, Kleinhans said he expects the district's enrollment to continue to slide "for the next several years" before "leveling off in the low 800's, high 700's."
LUHS, he said, is not alone, calling it a "sign of the times" of an increasingly aging population and a "statewide phenomenon."
Also challenging the district financially is the state's school funding formula. As a property-rich Northwoods district, Kleinhans said the amount of state aid received by LUHS is "minimal."
Based on his recent conversations with legislators and candidates in the 12th Senate and 34th Assembly districts, Kleinhans said an equitable statewide solution to Wisconsin's school financing dilemma isn't forthcoming.
"I'm not overly optimistic," he conceded. "There's not a lot of money there. There's no money left - and that doesn't bode well. There isn't any more money. If we think we're going to get more money we're kidding ourselves. Ultimately, we're going to have to find creative ways to fund schools without shifting the tax ... We don't have the answers. I don't have the answers. I don't think anybody has the answers. But I'm absolutely convinced there's no more money. We're not the only ones that are feeling it. Municipalities and local governments are feeling it just as much. So how you do you maintain the quality of education and services that you provide without sacrificing and without getting more money - those are the real issues. I don't have the answer to that one. I don't think anybody does. But I'm absolutely convinced there's no more money. We're kidding ourselves if we think there's gonna be."
LUHS and districts across Wisconsin and the nation are also being hammered by sharply increasing costs, which are far outstripping district income.
"Transportation costs, energy costs, salaries and health insurance costs are taking up more and more of the pie and leaving less and less at a time when there's not a whole lot of dollars available," Kleinhans said. "There are some real challenges."
Perhaps Kleinhans' biggest challenge is the gauntlet thrown down by his predecessor.
"I remember what Mike Dailey told me some time ago, before taking on the job," Kleinhans recalled. "He said, 'If you ever have to go to referendum here at Lakeland Union High School, you haven't done a good enough job.' He really challenged me in that area."
Looking to creatively keep the district operating within its finite financial means, Kleinhans said LUHS will look for creative ways to pare operational costs. The district will also continue to capitalize on natural retirement attrition to downsize staffing to match contractions in enrollment.
Moving forward, student academic achievement and cutting edge academic programs are also a priority for Kleinhans, who said the district must "continue to move forward in terms of trying to provide the best possible 21st century education we can."
As part of that focus on academic programs and achievement, Kleinhans said he and the district will continue to build upon the various school improvement initiatives that have been put into place to address a number of challenges, including achievement gaps between American Indian and non-native students.
"The school improvement initiatives will continue to be an ongoing process," he said. "While Jim [Bouché] will be the instructional leader for the district in terms of the working operations, the real nuts and bolts, I'll still be highly involved with the vision and moving that forward."
Also among Kleinhans' priorities for LUHS is to reach out to the community, area leaders and the local news media in an effort to put a more positive face on the district by capitalizing upon the myriad public relations "opportunities" to "share all the good things happening here at Lakeland Union High School on a daily basis."
"Communications with our public is very important," Kleinhans said, noting he's addressed several civic and service organizations over the last several months and recently committed to penning a monthly column for The Lakeland Times.
District takes steps to improve race relations with LdF
Looking to improve American Indian academic achievement and race relations at the high school, Kleinhans and Bouché are already at work building upon the "wonderful" liaison groundwork laid by the Indian Education Committee between LUHS and the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
"We're looking for increased opportunities for communication between the district and the tribe," Kleinhans said.
To that end, Kleinhans said he and Bouché, beginning this month, will have standing monthly meetings with tribal president Victoria Doud and various executive council officers.
"That's going to be extremely important for us to keep that communication flowing and keep it moving in a positive direction," Kleinhans said. "The idea is that if they have issues that they're aware of, or if we have issues that we're aware of, we'll be able to dialogue about them and put those issues to rest before they become bigger issues."
While there are tribe-specific issues to be sure, Kleinhans said most concerns are standard issue parental concerns common to every community.
"...They want the same things for their children as parents in our other communities do," he explained. "They want their children to be able to go to a school that's safe, that has a solid educational program, where they can do well ... That's no different than you and I as parents - we want the best for our kids."
Lakeland Area Consortium a major partner
An important ongoing educational initiative, Kleinhans said, is the collaborative academic and operations partnership spearheaded by the Lakeland Area Consortium, which encompasses LUHS and its four feeder elementary-middle schools - Arbor Vitae-Woodruff, Lac du Flambeau, Minocqua-Hazelhurst-Lake Tomahawk and North Lakeland.
Beginning with academic collaborations and the forging of a common PreK-12 perspective, more recent Consortium efforts have focused on identifying cost-saving shared services, including shared curriculum directors
"We have an opportunity to come together and move some of these initiatives forward," he said. "There are a myriad of possibilities that exist out there. The real challenge for us as [Consortium] superintendents is to try to put together a structure and process by which we can move those things forward. Those conversations are just beginning, quite honestly. We've got a laundry of this many ideas. How do we put our arms around that - pick and choose and grasp and move those things forward. Certainly, that's going to be a big part of where we go over the next several years ... I believe that the elementary feeder school districts are really looking to Lakeland to provide some leadership in that area. That's a real credit, quite honestly, to Mike Dailey and the relationships that he built with those folks in our feeder elementary school districts. The leadership that he provided for some of those efforts ... positioned me very well. It's almost like we haven't missed a beat..."
Kleinhans said the Lakeland Area Consortium has been beneficial for all five schools.
"They (feeder schools) sense a real obligation to prepare kids well for Lakeland Union High School," he noted. "In turn, Lakeland provides them with some data, some feedback, some valuable input that they can use to do better. It really has been a two-way avenue, a two-way street so to speak, where we are constantly sharing with each other. That's really been quite neat. I really appreciate their willingness to work with us and to partner with us. Their role is huge. HUGE. We have excellent leadership at all the schools, from boards of education to the district administrators and principals. There's a real sense of collaboration ... to provide the absolute best possible education program for the students in the Lakeland area."
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