Brian Smith was unanimously approved Tuesday afternoon as the new superintendent of Valparaiso Community Schools just hours after ending a 13-year tenure in the same job at the School Town of Highland.
“You hate to take someone like that from another district,” said board member Ashley Kruse, recounting a conversation she had had when checking Smith’s references. “I almost felt guilty. The union president there was so sad about his leaving.”
Smith replaces former superintendent Jim McCall, who has served in that role since 2020 and left for a job in the private sector.
Before his tenure in Highland, Smith was superintendent for four years at the North Newton schools. At the beginning of his career, he was a social studies and English teacher for eight years, and then a middle school principal for seven years at a fine arts magnet school within Fort Wayne Community Schools.
He also has an undergraduate degree in public finance, which Kruse found appealing, particularly given the feedback she was receiving on the search from the community at large.
“One person I was having a conversation with said, ‘Just make sure they don’t spend all our money,’ and I thought, ‘Fair enough,’” she said.
Board President Erika Watkins explained to the audience, largely made up of the district’s school administrators, that the board had asked retired teacher and former Valparaiso Teachers Association President Charles Foster to sit in on the first round of all external candidate interviews.
Foster said he hoped he helped determine whether candidates’ qualifications were “positive qualities so we don’t mistakenly take a nice, shiny answer for a positive answer.”
Smith and his wife, Sallie, a second-grade teacher in the North Newton School District, plan to move to Valparaiso. “We think it’s important to live in the community,” Smith said, adding that they have lived in both districts where he has served as superintendent.
Smith’s contract stipulates he’ll receive an additional $10,000 in salary if he lives within district boundaries.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, Valparaiso resident Brian Williams said he agreed with the comments made by fellow Valparaiso resident John Sut at the last board meeting that he didn’t want a repeat of the Julie Lauck departure that cost the district her $170,000 base salary plus tens of thousands in additional benefits upon her resignation in 2020.
“It’s excessive,” Williams said of Smith’s contract. “Excessive in many aspects of it.”
Watkins and board member John Peluso addressed the criticism. Watkins said it became increasingly concerning to the board how many of the surrounding school districts were also searching for a superintendent.
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Duneland School Corporation and East Porter County School Corporation, both in Porter County, saw their superintendents move on this year.
“We were mindful of that,” Watkins said.
Peluso pointed to Smith’s 17 years as a superintendent between North Newton and Highland.
“You’re not going to get that kind of experience,” he said, and it’s one of the reasons for the contract “being what it is. We don’t want to lose out on a great opportunity by trying to save $10,000 a year.”
Watkins said the board took note that Smith viewed Valparaiso’s “commitment of cultivating life-long learning and community engagement” as its strengths.
Kruse noted a remark Smith made during the interview process. “He made the little quip, ‘I have to make sure I treat the teachers well, or I’ll hear it at home,’” she relayed. Smith also talked about sending his two daughters, who have since graduated, to public schools, “and it only strengthened my belief in the life-long impact of public education.”
“One thing you’ll learn about me: I’m a passionate advocate for children,” Smith read from a statement when given the floor. “I also believe deeply in shared leadership. Over the coming months, I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible, and most importantly, listening.”
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.