JACKSON -- Jackson County Central's new superintendent, Todd Meyer, will start work at JCC July 1, replacing retiring JCC superintendent Gery Arndt.
"I'm really looking forward to working with the staff there, and my family and I being a part of the community and raising our kids," Meyer said. "It seems to me, with everything we've looked at and everything we've researched, it's a great town. And I grew up in that area, and I know it's a great town."
Meyer, who has been superintendent of the Nicollet School District since 2005, was pleasantly surprised to be offered the position and glad to move to an area closer to his parents, who live in Spencer, Iowa.
Meyer will spend time getting used to everything at JCC before making any changes, getting acclimated to the new district, its budget and the way things work.
"You also get to know how things are working, what works well, what things ... need to be checked on," Meyer said. "It's one of those things where you kind of go in wide open and do a lot more listening than you do talking."
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Meyer also praised the district for its recent passage of an operating levy and for its strong community support in a financial environment difficult for schools.
"They're obviously a very good district, so it's not like you need to go in and change everything," Meyer said. "They're obviously doing a lot of wonderful things there."
Ensuring the money from the operating levy and the state goes back to getting students the best possible education is a major part of the superintendent's job, Meyer believes.
Like many school administrators around Minnesota, Meyer thinks the state isn't funding education properly, which is why the vast majority of school districts in the state must have operating levies in the first place.
"Your insurance costs are jumping ... when you've got giant increases like that coming, your basic inflation rate is 3.5 percent, and your legislature says they're going to give you 1 percent (increase in the general fund); it doesn't cut it," Meyer said.
Meyer, who started his teaching career at Mount Marty College, Watertown Branch, was immediately reminded of Jackson's historical Fort Belmont when he heard about the superintendent job opportunity there.
"I'm a big history buff. I can't tell you how many times I went to Fort Belmont" as a child, Meyer said. "Honestly, that was the first thing that hit my brain."
He intends to get involved with the Jackson County Historical Museum as a hobby.
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Meyer will likely begin house hunting in the Jackson area this month, along with his wife, Lyn, a stay-at-home mom and former English teacher. They have three children -- Liberty, who will start fourth grade in the fall, Glory, who will be in third grade, and Chance, who will attend kindergarten.
