AREA DISTRICTS WILL HAVE NEW LEADERS
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 -- 1:02 PM
A couple area school districts will head into the new fiscal year with new leadership.Both Granton and Greenwood school districts will have new superintendents.
In Granton, Arnie Snook has taken the reigns from Rick Rehm. Snook comes by way of south-central Iowa.
"For five years, I've been in Eldon, Iowa, at Cardinal Community School district. I've been in education for 39 years," Snook says.
Granton?population 400?is not a culture shock to Snook.
"No, it's not a culture shock at all. My dad, when I was growing up, had a 120 acre farm to keep us boys out of trouble, so, yeah, I'm very familiar with rural communities and it's not a shock, whatsoever," he says.
Smaller districts have built-in advantages, including smaller class sizes. Granton has a student body of about 290, he notes.
While the size of the community feels familiar, the state's funding formula doesn?t. "It seems strange to me that student count isn't going to take place until September 15, and that student count is used for your 09-10 budget," Snook laments. He says the Iowa formula was a year behind, so it was easier to budget.
Snook and his wife like their new community. They attended their first Rotary Club meeting Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, the Greenwood School Board met last week and elected to not renew the contract of their superintendent, Thomas Nykl. No other information was available Tuesday morning.
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