Brian Pekarek said Friday he would bring a “new vision in academics” to USD 257.
Pekarek, in his second year as superintendent at Clifton-Clyde USD 224, is one of four candidates to replace Dr. Craig Neuenswander as USD 257 superintendent.
“I feel academics should infiltrate into every aspect of a district,” said Pekarek, who noted that Clifton-Clyde was the highest achieving district in Kansas last year. “Our elementary students were first in assessment performance, middle school students were second and our high school was 14th.”
An academic program that “focuses on a higher level than state assessments is the way to reach excellence,” Pekarek said. “The key is to emphasize that we’re getting kids ready for college, through a variety of academic interventions.”
Pekarek and his wife, Robyn, have two sons, Seth, 4, and Thad, 2, and are expecting a third child. The children are a part of his motivation for seeking the USD 257 position, Pekarek said.
“We were raised in 3A and 4A districts and are more comfortable in a larger district,” he said. “Also, there would be more opportunities for the boys in a larger district.”
The Clifton-Clyde district is 1A, with 250 students and an operating budget of $2.5 million. USD 257 has 1,330 students and an operating budget of more than $12 million.
Clifton-Clyde’s budget lost about 11 percent since August 2008 due to state aid cuts, including $131,000 this school year, Pekarek noted.
To overcome some of the cuts, Pekarek said he encouraged staff to write grants to help fund programs and buy supplies.
“I told everyone that $500, $1,000, whatever, would help with our financial problems. The campaign brought in $400,000 in 18 months,” he said.
The grants paid for a variety of things, such as one from the U.S. Department of Labor for $20,000 to put at-risk students to work in the summer in the district’s garden and greenhouse. Other money helped with green energy projects, such as wind turbine and solar panels. Grant money also helped with curriculum supplies, to restore field trips and to provide professional development.
Public relations is one of Petarek’s long suits.
“I like to tell about the great things that are happening in our district,” he said. “It has helped attract people. We had a 7 percent increase in district population the past two years. Before that we had had decreasing enrollment,” in a district that contains parts of four counties northwest of Manhattan.
“We got an award from the Kansas Association of School Boards for Best Strategic Public Relations Campaign in Kansas, which gave a lot of positive reinforcement to the staff and kids,” Pekarek said.
Individually, Pekarek was voted Kansas Superintendent of Promise in 2010 by his colleagues in the Kansas Association of School Administrators.
THE SON of a Lutheran minister, Pekarek lived in several Kansas towns while growing up.
He spent most of his elementary years in Lindsborg, graduated from Abilene High School and earned a bachelor’s degree from Fort Hays State University in 1997. He taught social studies in Quinter and Lindsborg before getting a master’s degree in counseling, which led him to counseling jobs at Basehor-Linwood High School and an elementary school in Haysville.
With building and district administration endorsements from Baker and Emporia State, he next was a middle school principal in Emporia before becoming Clifton-Clyde superintendent in 2009.
Pekarek said he moved from classroom to counseling to administration “because I thought with each step I could help kids more academically.”
