Bettendorf hires interim superintendent
School officials in Bettendorf selected the former superintendent of a 5,000-student district in Iowa as their interim leader.
Harrison Cass Jr., 59, will start his new job as the interim superintendent of the Bettendorf School District Aug. 1, just months after retiring from a position leading the Marshalltown Community School District.
A hiring committee of Bettendorf board members and administrators announced its selection Thursday after reaching an agreement with Cass. School board members expect to sign off on the contract at their Aug. 4 meeting, said Barry Anderson, board president.
Anderson said the contract will expire at the end of June 2009, when a permanent replacement is expected to fill the position. He declined to provide further details about the terms of the contract until board members approve it.
“We are very excited to have gone through the (selection) process and having him on board we can move forward from the situation we had with the prior superintendent,” Anderson said. “This lets us move forward in a very confident way with a person who has very extensive experience leading a similar-sized district.”
Bettendorf has been without a superintendent since June when board members voted to place former Superintendent Marty Lucas on paid leave and move forward with terminating his contract after he was charged with drunken driving for the second time in less than a decade.
The board announced Wednesday it had reached a settlement agreement with Lucas, in which he would resign. In addition, he will collect $49,000 from the district over the next five-and-a-half months. The district’s insurance company will contribute $24,000 of that figure.
Cass beat out one other finalist, who was also a retired administrator from Iowa, for the position. The board had conducted phone interviews with Cass and two other candidates early last week. Within days, Cass and another finalist traveled to Bettendorf for on-site interviews. The third candidate withdrew his name from the running, Anderson said.
Anderson declined to name the two other candidates.
“I view it as an honor to be selected as (Bettendorf’s) interim superintendent,” Cass said. “I have been impressed by the people, and I have always been impressed by the Bettendorf School District. They need my help, and it’s nice to be needed. I think I can help them.”
Cass comes to Bettendorf with more than a decade of experience as a superintendent for four school districts in Iowa, Nebraska, Michigan and Alabama. During his time in those positions, he passed bond referendums to build new schools, implemented strategic plans to move the districts forward and either eliminated deficit spending or increased budget surpluses.
Most recently, he reversed a 17-year deficit in Marshalltown, putting the district’s budget in the black by 6 percent in 2007.
“There were never any incidences where the board as a whole was dissatisfied with his performance,” said Adrienne Macmillen, president of the Marshalltown School Board. “As with any leader, you are going to occasionally have a board member or pocket of folks who don’t agree with his decisions …
“He was able to execute some pretty hard decisions during his time in Marshalltown, and the district is better off because of those decisions.”
When Cass assumes his leadership role with Bettendorf, Anderson said, he will face the challenges of leading the district through a transition period, hiring an assistant superintendent and developing a strategic plan, among other things.
Cass said his experience from his previous positions, ability to delegate tasks to staff when appropriate and willingness to listen, observe and learn will help him tackle those challenges and move the district forward.
“I have the experiences of going through challenging transitions,” Cass said. “You don’t get anything done without a cohesive team of people to work together in an organization the size of Bettendorf. I don’t mean to imply they don’t have a good team, but when you have transitions happen, there are challenges that come with that … I’m excited about getting there and getting started.”
Sheena Dooley can be contacted at (563) 383-2363 or sdooley@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.