HANOVER — After eight years at the helm, the superintendent of the Hanover and Norwich school districts is retiring in the fall.
At its meeting Tuesday, the SAU 70 school board voted unanimously to accept Jay Badams’ retirement request and to begin the process of hiring Assistant Superintendent Robin Steiner as the new superintendent.
Badams, 60, said he plans to depart Sept. 6.
“I’m really excited to be more available to my family,” he said in a phone interview Wednesday. Badams has two grandchildren with a third on the way.
Badams credits his ability to retire early to Steiner, who was hired in 2019. The SAU 70 school board decided Tuesday to begin hiring Steiner, without engaging in a formal search for other candidates.
“Ms. Steiner is an outstanding candidate who knows the district well, has proven her abilities often as our Assistant Superintendent, and can start with the advantages inherent in that district knowledge and her talents and experiences,” Lisa Christie, the board’s chairwoman, wrote in an email to the Valley News.
Shortly after becoming assistant superintendent, Steiner became the district’s COVID-19 coordinator.
“Without missing a beat, (Steiner) helped guide The School District through one of the most difficult educational periods it has endured,” said a joint statement from the SAU 70, Dresden, Hanover and Norwich school boards.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, Steiner began the process of documenting and updating the district’s curriculum. Parents and guardians are now able to access the curriculum their children are learning through an online database.
The board also was concerned it might not be able to find other qualified candidates at this point in the academic year, Christie said.
Steiner did not respond to the Valley News’ emails or phone calls by deadline.
The board hopes to have a contract with Steiner in place by July 1, said Neil Odell, one of the board members tasked with drawing up the agreement. Steiner’s annual salary will be determined during negotiations. Badams salary is about $186,000, he said.
Guiding the district through the pandemic, implementing a large-scale diversity and equity professional development initiative, and updating the district’s policies, are some accomplishments Badams is proud of from his time as superintendent.
Badams’ “leadership of the strategic plan, his focus on policy-driven leadership, his gifted communications and direct interactions with students, staff, family members and the community at large, and his genuine passion for curriculum and instruction leave us in a better position now than we were eight years ago,” the boards’ statement said.
With more time on his hands in his retirement, Badams wants to write about his experience of being on “both ends of the spectrum of public education,” he said.
Before coming to SAU 70, Badams was the superintendent of a “large urban school district that was severely underfunded” in Erie, Penn., he said.
“I thought it would be a great change and relief to come to a district that was adequately funded,” Badams said about coming to work for SAU 70. “I couldn’t be in a community that’s more supportive of public education.”
As superintendent, Badams has been the point person with legal counsel for the district’s ongoing lawsuit against the U.S. Education Department. The district is among the plaintiffs suing the department over a February letter threatening federal funding cuts and other punishments for schools found engaging in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
In his retirement, Badams hopes to continue advocating for public education.
“Retiring is not giving up on that,” he said. “I have every intention of fighting in a way that wouldn’t be proper for a superintendent.”
For example, Badams plans to testify on bills and join advocacy groups such as the Friends of Vermont Public Education, an organization calling for “clear accountability and transparency wherever public education dollars are spent,” according to its website.
As a resident of South Strafford, he is especially tuned in to Vermont politics. The Vermont House and Senate have both passed versions of an education reform bill that would consolidate school districts and create a new education funding formula.
Although Badams thinks “solutions are being rushed” and more information needs to be gathered before changes are made to public education in Vermont, he hopes his “reasonable amount of experience” with consolidation in Pennsylvania can be helpful moving forward.
Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.
