(Lake Park)– The Harris-Lake Park School District is looking for a new Superintendent. Meeting in special session Wednesday evening, the school board accepted the resignation of Andy Irwin who served as Superintendent and Elementary Principal at H-L-P for five years. His resignation is effective July 1st. He’s accepted the Superintendent’s position with the Underwood Community School District in southwest Iowa. Irwin tells KUOO news he’s moving on with mixed emotions…
“You know we’re looking really to finish the year strong at Harris-Lake Park and appreciate everything, all of the opportunities that I have had here. Been a great place for my family and I to live. I just can’t say enough about the community and everything that we’ve been a part of here, so. We are originally from southwest Iowa and the job came open at Underwood and it just seemed like a good fit for my family and I. My wife is also from about 30 minutes from Underwood as well so it just seemed like a good fit and so we applied, went for it, and it worked out, so.”
Irwin says he’s proud of what he was able to accomplish while at Harris-Lake Park. He says COVID was among the biggest challenges…
“You know we stayed in school, we had a lot of things that were positive throughout COVID, but a couple of things that I think we’ve done very well in the district is we really improved a lot of our technology. The technology that was in our student’s hands and what the teachers had available is something that I think we’ve really worked hard towards. But not only just having that technology but also helping the teachers utilize that within their daily lesson plans so that we didn’t have glorified notebooks or anything. We wanted to make sure it was something useful. So we’re very happy about that. I think that’s some things that we’ve done well. You know, some other things, just trying to make sure everybody in the area knows what are the great things we’re doing here at Harris-Lake Park, how can we put that out there, how can we put our kids in good positions to either plan for their future or look at the options that they have and just try to make it the best we can.”
The school board Wednesday evening directed Irwin to visit with some neighboring districts to see if there’s any interest in sharing a superintendent…
“Yeah, I think it’s a good direction. It’s something that I think is a good idea to kind of cross that off, is that something that we’re interested in? Because, you know, a lot of school districts do it. It doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be that way or that’s the end all, but you know, it’s a good thing to start with and then move from there. It’s a big decision.”
If no interest is found in that, the board indicated they would move to their next option, which could involve hiring a consulting firm to assist in the process.
It was also the consensus of board members to make the Elementary Principal job a separate position.
On another matter, the Harris-Lake Park School Board also Wednesday evening approved the appointment of Jamie Reverts to fill the vacant Director three seat. The board took the action after interviewing Reverts and another person interested in the seat, Jon Martin.
