Indiana school superintendent finds new $265K job in Kentucky after difficult tenure

MCCSC Superintendent Jeff Hauswald has found a new job.

Hauswald, whom the board ousted after a series of controversies, has signed a four-year contract to serve as superintendent of the public school system in Boone County, Kentucky.

Hauswald will receive $265,000 in his first year and may receive raises in subsequent years. He will begin his new job July 1. The superintendent is required to live in Kentucky and will get an additional $4,000 for moving expenses.

According to the district's website, it is Kentucky's third-largest school system, with more than 20,000 students at 15 elementary, six middle and five high schools.

The district said in a news release that it chose Hauswald after a four-month search by a committee that included teachers, administrators, students and community members. The district could not be reached to say how many candidates it had and why it chose Hauswald. The Boone County school district's community relations coordinator referred questions to board President Jesse Parks, who did not reply to an email message,

The district's release lists, among other things, Hauswald’s work ethic and “agrarian roots, having grown up on a farm.”

Hauswald said in the release, "I try to be a servant leader, positional authority doesn't get you anywhere.

“The reality is you get power by giving it away,” Hauswald said. “Our teachers and administrators are the experts in their fields of work. They don't work for me, I believe in working with my staff and for the students, that's how together (we) accomplish the goal of accelerated learning opportunities for our students.”

The MCCSC school board in March agreed to pay Hauswald nearly $229,000 to leave two years before his contract was set to expire. An agreement between the board and the superintendent calls for Hauswald to receive half of the money within 30 days of July 1 and the second half within 30 days of Jan. 1, 2025.

Buyout:MCCSC to pay superintendent Jeff Hauswald $229K for separation

The MCCSC board approved the separation in early March in a 48-second meeting that the state’s public access counselor criticized as “perfunctory.”

A joint statement the board and Hauswald issued after the meeting did not provide a reason for the separation, and board President April Hennessey said at the time that she could not comment because it was a personnel matter.

The agreement between the board and superintendent retains confidentiality and non-disclosure clauses, but Luke Britt, the state's public access counselor, said personnel matters are not “de facto confidential," and unless the separation was prompted by extraordinary circumstances, such as a family illness, the board members should talk about reasons for the separation.

"That's the kind of thing that needs robust discussion,” Britt said. “They need to explain what they’re doing and give some kind of underlying reasoning.”

In their joint statement, the board members thanked Hauswald for his service and listed among his accomplishments that he led the district out of the COVID-19 pandemic and the successful passage of a 2022 school referendum, which allowed it to increase starting teacher pay from $40,000 to $57,750.

The separation agreement reads that the parties agreed to cancel the contract, “for sound business reasons and in the best interest of MCCSC and (Hauswald.)"

The agreement also states neither the district nor Hauswald “anticipate there will be any disputes between them or legal claims arising out of the mutual cancellation of the contract but (they) nevertheless desire to ensure an amicable parting.”

The relationship between the superintendent, board members, teachers, students and parents has, in the last year, been anything but amicable.

For example, a plan the superintendent proposed to align schedules of all high schools prompted about 250 people to protest on the courthouse lawn on Oct. 23. Protesters said they felt the schedule alignment was being foisted upon them without a good explanation and without sufficient data to support the stated rationale to achieve greater equity.

In a tense school board meeting on the following day, the board, in a 4-3 vote, wrested the authority to align the schedules from Hauswald. It was a rare moment of disharmony among board members and the superintendent, as the board frequently has voted in unison in favor of Hauswald's proposals and recommendations.

While Hauswald said at the meeting that discussions about the schedule alignment began in March 2023, internal documents shared with The Herald-Times show the talks began in early 2022 — though Hauswald said those earlier exchanges were “preliminary.” The revelations reinforced stakeholders' concerns about secrecy under Hauswald's leadership.

MCCSC stakeholders said in March they were “glad” and “relieved” the superintendent will leave at the end of this school year and said they expect the board to pick a successor who values transparency and input from the community.

Last month, the MCCSC board said Markay Winston, the school corporation's deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction, would serve as interim superintendent beginning July 1.

Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.