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Interim Superintendent, Brian Field’s, time with the Avon School District will come to an end this Thursday, June 27th. Field first took the interim superintendent position for Avon on January 2nd of this year. He was happy to take the shortterm position in Avon because he has always enjoyed the small and mid-sized school culture. Field enjoys a school setting that allows for the getting to know of the students, staff, parents and community well. This is especially important to Field as he believes that education is about building and sustaining positive and productive relationships with all stakeholders. In the short time that Field has been in Avon, he can see that there is a great amount of pride for the school district and outstanding support from the community. Being an Avon Pirate is something very special as is evident to Field by so many of the staff members coming back home to Avon to work and raise their families. Field received his Bachelor’s Degree in History/Secondary Education from the University of South Dakota. He then continued his education and received his Master’s Degree in Secondary School Administration from South Dakota State University. Finally, he earned his Specialist in Education degree in the School District Superintendent program at USD. For eight years, he taught junior high/senior high social studies courses and coached at Arlington. He then served as a principal for 12 years at Freeman Public Junior/ Senior High School. He also served as principal at Watertown High School and Beresford High School. His final full-time position before retiring from his 34 years in education was as the superintendent of the Beresford School District; a job that he held for 14 years. Since retiring three years ago, he has been working a few part time jobs including serving as an Education Specialist for Architecture Incorporated in Sioux Falls, assisting Dakota Timing with indoor and outdoor college and high school track and field meets, and driving co-curricular bus for the Beresford School District. Those jobs were all put on hold when he became interim superintendent for Avon. Even though he was only a part of the Avon School District for six months, he did have goals for the district. His priority was to make connections and build positive relationships with the school board, administrative team, staff, students, parents, and the Avon community by being visible and through mutual trust and respect for one another. His job as an interim superintendent is really no different than being the superintendent with the only real difference being the amount of time that he was with the school district. In his role as interim superintendent, Field had many duties and responsibilities. He oversaw the entire educational program of the district, provided leadership in the development and maintenance of the best possible education for students. Another of his roles was to oversee the hiring of all personnel of the district, subject to board approval. Hand in hand with the principal, the superintendent directly and indirectly supervises all employees of the district. He worked to implement the vision, mission and values of the district as well as sees that the school board policies and regulations are implemented and followed. Field also developed the agendas for, attends and participates in all regular and special meetings of the Board of Education. In his position, he also made recommendations to the Board on any matters affecting the school. Along with the school’s business manager, he also assumed responsibility for the overall financial planning of the district, including the preparation of the annual budget that requires school board review and adoption. During his brief time in Avon, Field has enjoyed meeting and getting to know a lot of the people that are connected to the Avon School District and community of Avon. The Avon School District serves as a hub for activities in the community and a gathering place for all community members to attend and support the students and their academic, fine arts, athletic, and other co-curricular programs and teams. One of the challenges for Field in taking on the Avon Interim Superintendent position is that in addition to building relationships with all of the stakeholders in the Avon School District, he had to prioritize his time and commitments to make sure that he was able to complete tasks for the betterment of the Avon School District. When asked how he feels that he has prepared the Avon School District for Superintendent Kuhlman to take over, Field said that he and Kuhlman have had the opportunity to communicate and meet often about the job of a superintendent and some of the items being worked on at the present time and into the future. Some of those items included the development of board meeting agendas and preparation, preparing for state accreditation, and the special education accountability review next fall. In preparation for Superintendent Kuhlman to take over the position, Kuhlman has been involved in the interviews and recent hires of new staff members for the 24-25 school year. Kuhlman has also been in attendance and involved at the school board meetings for the past several months. Field assured the Avon School Board that he would help in any way possible with the transition in school district leadership, and he has definitely held true to that. Field believes that there are five essential qualities for being a successful superintendent including leadership; vision and innovation; business and finance; communication; and community engagement and involvement. These five qualities are in addition to a superintendent having the educational background, skills, and abilities essential for excellence in educational leadership. When asked what Field would personally like to see for the future of the Avon School District, the staff and the students, he said that he would like to see the district continue to remain a strong and viable school district for many years to come by maintaining a stable enrollment for state funding purposes. Small school districts have a lot to offer students, be that academically and or through their participation in a wide range of co-curricular activities. Smaller school districts have a lot of advantages over larger schools including smaller class sizes that create better student-teacher relationships, positive learning environments with less distractions, and individualized attention and personalized learning experiences. Field will miss the students, staff, parents and community that he has come to know during the past six months. He will also miss the small town feel and that positive school culture that exists in the Avon School District. He will always look positively on his time as an Avon Pirate. Field would like to thank the Avon School Board for providing him with the opportunity to serve as Avon’s interim superintendent for the past six months. He has thoroughly enjoyed his time at Avon. Avon is a great school district with an outstanding staff and student body. He would also like to thank the administrative team – administrative assistant, Julie Mudder, Business Manager, Jordan Kortan, and K-12 principal, Lindsey Fathke – for their assistance and support this semester. Field would also like to thank the entire staff that he was blessed to work with for the benefit of Avon’s children and making a positive difference in their lives. Field will leave the position in the ever-capable hands of Paul Kuhlman. Field had several things to say about his successor. Kuhlman brings 36 years of math and science teaching experience to his new leadership role at the Avon School District with 32 of those years teaching at Avon. Kuhlman is a dynamic and charismatic teacher and educational leader. He knows the school district and community very well. Kuhlman has also earned the respect and admiration of his students, staff members, parents and the community. With his dedication, experience, educational background, along with his ability to communicate and build relationships, Mr. Kuhlman will be an outstanding educational leader for the Avon School District now and into the future. For the 24-25 school year, Field will be serving as the interim superintendent for the Lennox School District. Thank you Mr. Field for your service and dedication to the Avon School District over these past six months.