SCHOOL NEWS

(This article, reprinted with permission, appeared in the Columbus Dispatch on March 16, 2001)    

Bexley selects new chief of schools  
Superintendent is from Wisconsin

By Donna Glenn
Dispatch Schools Reporter

Transforming a school district is nothing new to the man who was picked last night to run Bexley schools.

Michael L Johnson, superintendent of the Kenosha Unified School District in Wisconsin, is the Bexley school board’s unanimous choice, after members of the board and district staff visited Wisconsin this week, board President Michael Levey said.

Johnson will replace Philip E. Tieman, who announced last summer that he’ll step down July 31 for a job in the private sector.

Bexley’s five-member board ap­proved a five-year contract for Johnson last night. With that came a hefty $14,0O0-a-year increase in salary over what Bexley now pays its superintendent.

Johnson was hired at $124,000 a year; Tieman earns $110,000 annually.  Johnson currently makes $117,000 in Kenosha.

Johnson, 51, was chosen after interviews with five finalists who were selected by the search firm Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates. That company whittled the candidates from 40 applicants, Levey said yesterday.

 “It’s the fact  that he is an obvious educational leader,” Levey said.   We believe that he has the vision and interpersonal skills to elevate Bexley to one of the top school districts in the nation.”

When Johnson starts Aug. 1, he’ll need a hard hat.

Voters approved a $27.06 million bond issue In November for massive renovations that are set to start this summer.

“I’m familiar with remodeling,” he said yesterday by phone from Wisconsin.

Johnson spent most of his 27-year career in Pueblo, Col., where he started as an elementary teacher an rose to superintendent. In 1996 he joined Kenosha, which is in the southeast corner of Wisconsin on Lake Michigan.

The district of 20,150 students has an annual budget of $193 million.

During the next five years he led restructuring of the system, which included developing five high-schools academies in partnership with the business community, improving academic standards and starting foreign-language immersion programs in two elementary schools.

Bexley, with a $32 million annual budget and 2,300 students, is among the highest-rated districts in Ohio, achieving 25 of 27 performance standards based on proficiency-test results, attendance and graduation rates.

Johnson said that was key in his decision to accept the school board’s offer. Another was the camaraderie said he witnessed among district staff members last week during a tour of the community and its schools.

“It’s the highest level of civility that I’ve seen in a long time coming from a district,” he said.

Johnson’s wife, Berta, is finishing a master’s program at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and will seek a position as a principal in the Columbus area.

They have three grown children.