NV Board: Superintendent Croghan's contract will not be renewed

At its regularly scheduled meeting Wednesday, Nov. 13 in the high school media center in Greenfield, Nodaway Valley’s school board voted 3-2 to consider the termination of Superintendent Paul Croghan’s contract when it expires June 30, 2025.

The process, outlined on the Iowa Association of School Boards’ website, states that Croghan had five days to submit a request for a private hearing in writing to the board secretary. He had not as of Monday. The hearing would be held 20-40 days after the request. If Croghan doesn’t appeal, the action would stand.

“It’s part of the process,” Croghan told the Free Press Thursday morning over the phone. “The board can do that and it was done. Now we move on.”

Croghan declined to give any further comment but did confirm to the newspaper the details of the IASB process for considering termination of a superintendent are correct.

Board President Kristen Jensen opened discussion on the agenda item labeled Possible Action of Superintendent Contract. She stated that normally personnel discussions are in closed session, however Croghan had instead exercised his right to have the discussion be in open session.

“Let me be transparent that this is something that we would have in a closed session, but we asked for closed session and it was denied, so we’re here in open session,” Jensen said. “We’re looking at the contract ending June 30, 2025. We have not had any motion to renew or terminate. With the nature of two districts having to consider and time frame coming up, I’m making a motion to terminate the contract effective June 30, 2025.”

Board member Susan Stevens clarified with Jensen that her motion was to terminate the superintendent’s contract. Jensen replied that if this motion passed, it would allow Croghan to finish out his current contract to the best of his ability.

“I feel like we should offer him a new contract myself,” Stevens said. “He goes above and beyond. Last year he taught math, he drives school bus, he’s good with the facilities and grounds. He brought us out of the hole when he started. He does a very good job of communicating and keeping us apprised of financials and goals, where we’re at, where we need to be and what we need to do moving forward.”

Nobody else commented in favor of renewing or terminating the contract during the meeting.

Jensen, Molly Herrick and Daniel Shilling voted to terminate the contract while Adam Woosley and Stevens voted against terminating it.

In a phone call Thursday afternoon, when asked about what led to this decision being made, Jensen said it’s time for new leadership.

“The reasoning behind it is that now is the time we have to look forward and try to discern what changes we need to make. If that means we need to look at the district as a whole and what’s beneficial for it, we need to make that change,” Jensen said. “I believe a change in leadership would be best for the district in moving forward. There’s nothing sinister with this. By considering the motion, the board made it clear that we need to move the district forward.”

Hired in June 2019, Croghan is the shared superintendent of Nodaway Valley and Cumberland-Anita-Massena (CAM), with Nodaway Valley as the contract holder.

Another meeting was Monday at CAM Elementary School in Massena regarding current sharing agreements between those two districts. At that meeting, CAM leaders informed Nodaway Valley they had received a certified letter from Nodaway Valley stating that Nodaway Valley wishes to end the current superintendent sharing agreement. Leaders from both districts confirmed after the meeting that this is a formality because of the action Nodaway Valley’s board took last week.

CAM School Board President Todd McKee said that in his mind, there are a few options the districts have. The districts can share a superintendent again or they can go their separate ways with each district entertaining other options. McKee said the CAM board had not discussed anything prior to the meeting because of the short turnaround.

CAM and Nodaway Valley share five positions. The other four positions that are shared will continue to be shared as they currently are.

Stevens conveyed gratitude to the CAM board for how gracious they have been with Nodaway Valley for times that Croghan has had to spend more time at Nodaway Valley because of tornado relief and other things.

Jensen said she felt both districts need more time to decide what they would like to do. Discussions between the districts are likely to continue in the coming months.

The shared meeting lasted approximately 10 minutes.

Nodaway Valley and CAM first shared a superintendent in 2014 when Dr. Casey Berlau was in that position. Berlau arrived at Nodaway Valley in 2009 and left to lead the Carroll Community School District at the end of the 2018-19 school year.

When Croghan was hired, Nodaway Valley and CAM shareholders were involved in the search process, with help from a professional search firm.

Croghan’s previous stops as an administrator have been as shared superintendent at East Mills and Essex and as a principal and/or activities director at Atlantic and Walnut.

The COVID-19 pandemic, building improvements and the EF4 tornado were a few highlights of things that happened during Croghan’s tenure at Nodaway Valley.