AFTON — East Union Superintendent Pam Vogel has announced she will resign this June to take an assistant superintendent position at Regional School District No. 1 in northwestern Connecticut.
Vogel, who has been EU’s superintendent since the fall of 2008, notified the East Union School Board of Directors of her intentions at the end of its April 13 budget meeting. She will hand in her written resignation when the board meets Monday.
During Vogel’s seven years as superintendent, East Union built a new elementary school, began the one-to-one laptop initiative, launched competency-based education and, this year, was one of the first Iowa schools to adopt the Teacher Advancement Program.
“My number-one goal when I came here was to improve facilities, and also our students’ programs, both academic and extracurricular,” she said. “I look around and I see the changes that have happened, and I’m very proud of what we’ve done together.”
Vogel said she has been thinking about moving to a larger school district for awhile, and she said this will likely be her final career move before retirement. Her final day at East Union will be June 30. On July 1, she will move into her new position.
What’s next for EU
After receiving Vogel’s official written resignation, the board will need to vote to accept it. In addition to its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, the board will hold a special meeting Wednesday to discuss the superintendent search and view presentations from a pair of search firms recommended by Vogel.
However, Brett Weis, District 1 representative and board president, said East Union’s plans for how to fill the position are far from certain at this point.
“We’ve got a lot of discussion to do,” he said.
The board had briefly discussed sharing a superintendent with another school, but Weis said area schools were either not available or not interested.
“We’re kind of the last district of our size that is with an independent superintendent,” Weis said. “I don’t think we’re going to have a choice.”
Judith Wachter, District 5 representative and former EU special education coordinator, said hiring an interim might be a good choice to consider.
“I’ve been thinking about talking to the board members when we meet,” she said, “and asking the other people what they would think about having an interim superintendent.”
Looking back on her time working with Vogel as an EU staff member and board member, Wachter said her interactions with Vogel have been very positive and that she’s sorry to see her go.
“She did stuff for our school that needed to be done,” Wachter said. “I’d like to find somebody that has the characteristics that she has.”
Weis agreed.
“We’ve done a lot of positive things,” he said. “We’ve made incredible academic changes at East Union, I think, especially from when I graduated there. Even our sports programs — we’ve really changed them around in the last year alone.”
What’s next for Vogel
As assistant superintendent at Regional School District No. 1, Vogel’s responsibilities will include recruiting and hiring staff for all the region’s schools, as well as ensuring the district’s six K-8 schools — each with an attendance ranging from 75-300 students — align in their curriculum. Each of the K-8 schools feeds into Housatonic Valley Regional High School, the region’s only public high school, which has a typical attendance of 425.
Vogel and her husband, Dennis, live in Des Moines and will be keeping their residence there, as Dennis will continue to work in the area as a part-time education consultant. Vogel said she and Dennis both plan to travel throughout the month to spend time together and with their children.
Looking toward the future of East Union, Vogel said she hopes the school hires a superintendent who will “keep the momentum going.”
“I think that it’s essential that the East Union School District hires the very best possible candidate for their next superintendent,” she said, “so that the accomplishments we’ve seen are not lost, so that we don’t move backwards, we continue to make progress.”
East Union's next school board meeting will be 6 p.m. Monday in the East Union Middle-High School library. Wednesday's special meeting to discuss the superintendent search will be at 6:30 p.m., also in the Middle-High School library. Both are open to the public.