Administrative

Dr. Randy Freeman has been hired as Silver Lake's permanent superintendent. He was originally hired in under an interim, one-year agreement. (Photo by Shelby Kampsen)

Dr. Freeman stays

Board votes unanimously to keep interim superintendent

By Jeri Lyn Billings

October 31, 2007

The Silver Lake school board recently and unanimously hired Dr. Randy Freeman as the permanent superintendent.

Susan Runyan, school board president, felt that the board made a logical decision in hiring Freeman.

"I'm very pleased that we've decided to offer Dr. Freeman a contract. The many positive comments we've received from district patrons, staff and students has certainly validated our decision," Runyan said.

Dr. Freeman, who was hired in as the one-year interim superintendent, is also very pleased about the decision to make this a permanent position.

"I'm very excited about the opportunity, very humbled that the board made that decision in a way that they did. Knowing that there were people in the community that felt like they wanted me to be the superintendent here, and having the opportunity to be back with my family, my brother and sister, and their families, is something that I really look forward to.

"Knowing that my daughter will be representing Silver Lake High School when she's in high school and playing sports and other activities that she's in, and that our family can come watch her participate, is something that's really exciting.

"There are so many good kids here and good families that we believe would be a great place for us to have our daughter go to school and participate in high school, and so we're very excited about that," Freeman said.

With a contract negotiated in the near future, the question is how many years the contract will extend.

"A lot of that is up to the board. State law only allows the longest contract for superintendents, I think, is three years. I hope that's what will happen, but at this point, we haven't even had discussions about what the contract will look like. I have a contract through June 30. So sometime, probably January or February, we will start talking about what the contract will look like. I would hope that it will be three years, but I think it will be at least multiple years, so at least two. But in many cases, that's the decision the board gets to make,” Freeman stated.

Runyan noticed the devotion and time Freeman has already given to the school.

"In the short amount of time he's been here, he has devoted himself to learning the people and processes in our district. It's very difficult to find yourself in a new job where you know no one, and within the first few weeks, you must develop the annual budget, get up to speed on a $7.9 million building project and ensure that the facilities and staff are prepared to begin a new school year. Dr. Freeman has met all these challenges head-on," Runyan shared.

Freeman also said that people shouldn't expect any major changes in his actions as a permanent superintendent.

"I will tell you (my actions as a superintendent) will probably not change a lot because I think even if I were hired as a permanent superintendent when I was first hired, I think many times the first year a superintendent goes into position, they really need to evaluate programs, they need to evaluate what things are going really, really well and what things we're not doing as well, things that we could work on to improve.

"So, I think really, no matter how I was hired, I think the first year is really about building relationships with people because so much of a superintendent's job is about working with people and developing relationships. I don't think the approach I'll take will be significantly different now than it would have been before.

"As I observe things, there's a whole lot of things that are going really, really well in this school district, and probably very few major changes that really need to occur. There's going to be some things we may want to tweak a little, maybe do a little differently. I don't see any major things,” Freeman said.