The Lakeland school board has released the names of three candidates it wants to interview in person for the position of district administrator. Among the three is a LUHS graduate.
All hailing from Wisconsin school districts, the three are Joshua (Josh) Ernst, Benjamin Heninger and Robert Smudde. The board is using Don Stevens + Associates, an executive search firm out of Sun Prairie, to help them select a new administrator. The hiring timeline calls for the board to offer the administrator contract by February.
On Wednesday of this week the board and the 12-member advisory committee will interview all three candidates. The school board has set aside Feb. 1 to conduct a second round of interviews of the final candidates.
The board hired Claire Martin last August as interim administrator while they looked for candidates. Her one-year contract expires at the end of June 2022. She has not applied for the permanent position.
Ernst is a 1999 LUHS graduate, and current district administrator at Clear Lake School District, a position he has held since 2016. He earned his superintendent license in 2014 from Marian University. In 2019, he was awarded a Ph.D in educational leadership studies from Marian. The Clear Lake School District comprises two campuses, which include one elementary building and one junior/senior high school building totaling more than 600 students. The Village of Clear Lake is located in Polk County, northwestern Wisconsin.
Heninger is the principal (6-12 grades) and district assessment coordinator at Gresham Junior and Senior High School, Gresham School District, a position he has held since 2017. He was graduated from UW-Madison in 2005. He was awarded a Doctor of Education in 2017 from Edgewood College in Madison. There are 145 students in grades 6-12 at Gresham. The Village of Gresham is located in Shawano County, central Wisconsin.
Smudde is the director of pupil services at Dodgeville School District, a position he has held since 2019. He was also superintendent at Prairie du Chien Area School District and superintendent-director of special education at Ithaca School District at Richland Center. He was graduated from Northland College in Ashland in 1999. He received his superintendent license in 2014 from Viterbo University in LaCrosse. The school district consists of three schools: one elementary school, one middle school and one high school. It has 421 students in grades 9th through 12th. Dodgeville is located east of Madison in Iowa County, southern Wisconsin.
