School board picks finalist for Superintendent

FORT MADISON – The Fort Madison school board has selected a candidate to be its next supervisor, but hasn’t released the name pending background checks and contract negotiations, according to Board President Josh Wykert.
The district introduced the two finalists for the position on Wednesday morning at a meet-and-greet at Fort Madisons’ Jr./Sr. High School.
Shannon Bisgard, a consultant with Grundmeyer Leader Services, introduced both David Keane and Mike Wolter to about 50 people in the multi-purpose room. The two had some brief remarks and then mingled for about an hour before heading out to tours of the district facilities and panel interviews.
The board of directors then met with each candidate followed by a deliberation session, all of which were held in closed session. The board did come out of closed session Wednesday evening, with a selected finalist.
The board voted 7-0 to authorize GLS to make an offer on behalf of the district. Wykert said if all progresses well, the name could be released before the end of the work week.
Wolter is a former teacher at the district and is a secondary principal for the Columbus School District. Keane is the current director of teaching and learning, special education, and human resources for the West Burlington Independent School District. Both currently live in Burlington.
Keane said his experience at different levels of administration makes him a strong candidate for the position.
“Being a 4A principle is much like being the Superintendent. You have assistant principals and we have a sizable budget that you have to manage. So I think I bring some of those things to the table,” he said.
“I’ve also got central office experience and now elementary experience so I think I’ve got the whole experience from 8 through 12.”

He said the Fort Madison position was attractive to him for several reasons, including extended family in the district. But he said the size was attractive because it provides some of both the small district and large district feel.
“The pluses are that you're large enough that you can offer a broad curriculum.  You've got a lot of CTE programs that you can offer. You can offer a lot of electives in the core areas. Fort Madison also offers a solid Fine Arts program here. So you know you have a lot of things that you can offer students,” Keane said Wednesday.
“One thing that's great about it is that you're also small enough that you can still know who all your students are in just two buildings. You get a little bit bigger than this and pretty soon all of a sudden you have some students start falling through the cracks. Or you get a little bit smaller than this and all of a sudden you're limited in terms of the opportunities you can provide your kids."
Wolter says his familiarity with the district is a plus for his resume, while his experience away from the district has provided the needed administrative exposure to make him a strong candidate for the position.
Wolter said he has always been monitoring what’s happening in the district and was waiting for the right time to return. He said this position is the right time.
“I’m still very connected to the community, so I’m in touch with what’s going on here. I still get my haircut here, our insurance is here, so I’ve kept a watch from afar throughout my career and then this opportunity came up,” he said.
“It’s always been in the back of my head that if the right opportunity like this arose, I was gonna jump right in. There’s been other opportunities, but I knew if this position opened up I was going to apply.”
He said the district has a lot of good things going on, including the multi-tiered approach to address the individual needs of students. He said the new facilities are also a draw for him. But it’s the staff that has really drawn him back.
“It's just exciting to be a part of that with a lot of good people that I know here already doing a lot of really good things,” Wolter said.