Board on schedule to name Runez’s successor late this month
By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
The next educator to helm the Whitewater Unified School District could be named by the end of the month, officials confirmed this week.
WUSD’s current district administrator, Eric Runez, announced in mid-April he was resigning to accept a position with the DeForest Area School District for the upcoming 2016-17 school year.
In the nearly two months since Runez’s announcement, the WUSD School Board embarked on a vigorous series of steps to seek out Runez’s successor, including hiring an outside consulting firm, School Exec Connect, to help facilitate the recruitment process.
More recently, WUSD has solicited feedback from staff, parents and other community members. The district this week announced the three finalists for the position, and a panel has interviewed candidates in a public setting over a three-day stretch that ends June 9.
The trio of candidates are:
– Mark Elworthy, district administrator of the Wisconsin Heights School District the past 8 years;
– Barbara Sramek, district administrator of the Marshall School District the past 11 years;
– William White, middle and high school principal and curriculum and instruction director of the Williams Bay School District the past 3 years; previously a district administrator and principal of the Brighton School District for 3 years.
In a memo, board President Casey Judd said the three separate interviews this week have been an intensive process designed to acclimate candidates to WUSD and its array of schools.
“Each finalist candidate will visit Whitewater on a separate day … to meet with the district leadership team, tour the schools and community and meet with interview committees,” Judd said of this week’s exercises.
Next week, the board is meeting behind closed doors to review the qualifications of each of the three finalists. Each candidate is returning to the district on a separate night to go through a more thorough and intensive interview only with elected officials.
The interviews next week will launch a series of steps that are designed to have a candidate in place by the end of the month — just before WUSD begins its new fiscal year on July 1.
After the closed-door interviews Judd in his memo said, “The School Board will narrow to one finalist candidate, check any remaining references and offer a contract.”
He added, “If all goes well, contract approval for the next district administrator is targeted for the June 27 School Board meeting.”
Runez, for his part, is leaving WUSD on happy terms.
When his resignation became public April 19, he said, “I have really appreciated my time in Whitewater. The community, the district, the staff have just been unbelievably supportive, and it’s a great place to work.”
Runez at the time said his resignation came with “mixed emotions,” and he reportedly fought back tears as Judd read aloud his resignation letter at the April board meeting.
In addition to the community’s groundswell of support, Runez said his fellow administrative staff, as well as teachers and support staff throughout the district have made his time with WUSD a positive experience.
