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School board president Ed Schaub has named Rob Way, director of curriculum and instruction at Lakeland Union High School, interim district administrator. The appointment was effective today, Friday. District administrator Jim Bouche is currently away from the school on medical leave, Schaub said. Bouche will retire July 1 of this year from his duties at Lakeland.-Dean S. Acheson
(2/29)MINOCQUA – The Lakeland school board is eying combining the district administrator duties with those of the director of curriculum and instruction, currently held by Rob Way.
The board Thursday discussed realigning the two jobs once part-time district administrator Jim Bouché retires on July 1 of this year. For a few years Bouché was a full-time administrator/principal at LUHS. Before that he was the district’s full-time principal.
Board president Ed Schaub said the board doesn’t plan to post the new position externally. Nor has the board determined a final compensation package for the post. And nor has the board been in direct talks with Way about taking on those duties.
In his e-mail later to this reporter, Way said being the district administrator/director of curriculum would be his “dream job.” Board member Barry Seidel said he views the district administrator duties as comprising “thirty percent” of the new combined post. Bouché’s current contract is for 60 percent in that role with no other duties. Bouché is being paid $95,000 this year, along with benefits. Lakeland offers two-year contracts to its top administrators. “We are definitely looking for someone to be here five days a week full time in the building,” Seidel said of the combined post. Job descriptions already exist for the two roles in that top post, he explained. “How much of the responsibilities a person is going to have towards that job is something we have to arrange contractually.”
Instead of parsing those responsibilities on a percentage basis, he suggested that the board might “put all the responsibilities in a big bucket.” In recommending the realigned post, Way said the leadership team looked primarily at the overall administration structure and “how the organization would prosper with it. We looked at licensure, experience, skill set and the flow of the organization.”
The board approved the organizational chart with that new top position and directed the administration team to return to the next board meeting with a more refined job description for the district administrator/director of curriculum and instruction.
Way holds licensure for superintendent/district administrator K-12, director of instruction K-12, principal K-12 and director of pupil services K-12. Way was the principal at Minocqua-Hazelhurst-Lake Tomahawk Elementary District in Minocqua for eight years. He is in his fifth year at Lakeland as director of curriculum, instruction and assessment/pupil services.
The high school has just over 700 students and is part of a union school district with four public elementary school districts as feeders.
