(at left) - Hamilton Community Schools Superintendent Dr. Brad Lusk answers a question during the first round of interviews for the Zeeland Public Schools superintendent job last Friday. (at right) - Swartz Creek Community Schools superinten- dent Rod Hetherton discusses his interest in the Zeeland Public Schools superintendent post during his interview with the district’s Board of Education last Friday.
By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
The search for the next superintendent of Zeeland Public Schools is down to two finalists who are expected in town today for a full day of activities that include a tour of the district, a meet-and-greet with the community and a final round of interviews with the Board of Education.
The finalists are Hamilton Community Schools Superintendent Dr. Brad Lusk and Rod Hetherton, superintendent of the Swartz Creek Community Schools in Genesee County. The two were chosen as finalists after a day-long series of interviews with the Board of Education last Friday.
Hetherton, who has been Swartz Creek superintendent since July 2022, will be the first interview tonight at 5 p.m. Lusk, who has been in Hamilton since that same month in 2022, will interview with the board at 6:30 p.m. The interviews will take place in the board room of the ZPS administrative offices, 183 W. Roosevelt Ave.
After the interviews, the board is likely to vote on who they will select as the district’s next superintendent, with the successful candidate expected to begin his duties on July 1.
Prior to tonight’s interviews, the community will have a chance to meet the finalists at a meet-and-greet open house at the ZPS administrative offices from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Earlier in the day, the candidates are scheduled for tours of the district.
Hetherton, who has more than 25 years of educational experience, including administrative experience at both the elementary and secondary level, called the Zeeland job opportunity “a dream come true.”
“Your academics are fantastic, almost all of your schools are beating their peers, your athletics are fantastic – you just won a state championship in football – you have a community that’s faith-based, it’s family-oriented,” Hetherton said.
A self-described “systems guy,” Hetherton worked his way up through the ranks of the Swartz Creek system to the job of superintendent, starting in 2004 as an elementary principal. After 10 years in that capacity, he moved to the high school to become assistant principal, then less than a year later was promoted to deputy superintendent.
During his interview last Friday, Hetherton said he’d be interested in conducting a listening tour early on if he were selected superintendent, to get an idea of what improvements are needed at ZPS.
“The two strongest questions you can ask on a listening tour are ‘what’s going well’ and ‘what’s not going well,’” he said. “You can ask that up and down the chain, from the support staff to the certified staff to the (administrative staff). That is an easy way to get a lot of really good data – what’s going well, what’s not going well. In a district that’s high-functioning, I think that’s the best practice in year one.”
Hetherton holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Michigan-Flint, a master’s in educational leadership from U-M-Flint and an educational specialist degree from Oakland University.
Before coming to Hamilton in 2022, Lusk served for 10 years as principal at Fowlerville High School, located about halfway between Lansing and Detroit. Prior to that, he spent eight years at Grandville High School – four as a social studies teacher and four as assistant principal. He also founded and coached a state championship rugby team during his time at Grandville.
During his first interview, Lusk stressed the importance of being visible at buildings through the school district and building relationships with people both inside and outside the district.
“Being real, being authentic and being around is the key thing with building those relationships,” he said. “I would like to think that I have very strong relationships with our staff. It was a little tough when it came to the (recent) retirees (luncheon).”
While recognizing that most school districts, including ZPS, are expected to see enrollment declines in the new school year, Lusk told the board of ways Hamilton has tried creative methods to draw in new students – an approach Zeeland could look at.
“We put an HVAC (career and technical education) program in our building. We have a CDL program, where 4-7 kids each year are walking out of high school with a CDL, literally walking across the stage and the next day jumping into a (semi) truck and be able to drive,” Lusk said.
Lusk holds a bachelor of arts degree in education from the University of Michigan and master of education and educational specialist degrees from Grand Valley State University. He earned his doctorate from Eastern Michigan University in 2021.
As part of tonight’s interviews, the finalists are expected to present a plan of what they would do in their first 90 days on the job if they are hired by ZPS. That’s expected to take up the first 10 minutes or so of the interview.
Community members will have a chance to submit questions to the finalists during the interviews. “The audience will be able to write down questions that will be given to our (Michigan Association of School Boards) consultant and delivered to the board for an opportunity to be read aloud,” ZPS spokeswoman Brandy Navetta wrote in an email to the Zeeland Record.
The board interviewed a total of six candidates during last Friday’s first round of interviews. The other interviewees were ZPS Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services Jon Voss, Ravenna Public Schools Superintendent Greg Helmer, Olivet Community Schools Superintendent John Mertz and Lake Geneva (Wis.) Schools Superintendent Dr. Pete Wilson.
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