Randi Anderson steps down as superintendent

Decision to resign follows months of turmoil in school district
By: 
Lee Pulaski
City Editor

UPDATED: 9:15 p.m. Aug. 24

The Shawano School District has one more resignation to contend with, this time its superintendent.

Shawano School Board president Mike Musolff sent a statement to NEW Media announcing that Randi Anderson would be resigning, effective Sept. 2. The statement said that the resignation is due to “personal matters impacting her and her family.”

“She wished to express her unwavering support for all administration and staff and her belief in the work being done to support the children in our district,” the statement read.

The statement also claimed that the board is beginning the progress of recruiting a successor but did not elaborate.

Musolff also did not elaborate when he met with area media outlets Aug. 24 at Shawano Community High School. He said that Kurt Krizan, the district’s director of personalized learning, would be acting superintendent until plans are made regarding whether an interim superintendent would be hired or moving quickly to hire someone permanently.

“In my opinion, I would be looking at hiring someone who would get out there and talk to the staff and students, and would move forward with servant leadership-type styles,” Musolff said. “I feel that your staff needs to have the understanding that you are going to be there for them.”

Musolff did not know when the board would meet to discuss the issue.

“I don’t know that there’s really a rush to make those decisions,” Musolff said. “Mr. Krizan and the other administrative staff have been doing a good job and I believe they will do a good job getting us ready for the new school year. There’s going to be some hiccups along the way with all new staff.”

Musolff appeared to be taken aback that Anderson submitted her resignation, but would not elaborate further on what his feelings are about Anderson’s decision.

“I wasn’t sure if she would resign or not,” Musolff said. “There were some concerns we’ve had over the course of time with the community and staff. Whether or not she was going to resign or not, I wasn’t sure until recently.”

The school board held a closed session on Aug. 22 in which Anderson was not in attendance, which is a rarity. No action was taken after the closed session as the board hastily adjourned the meeting.

Anderson’s resignation takes place in the wake of the departure of a majority of the school board. James Davel and Jamie Beyer stepped down in July, and they were replaced by Sam Sousek and Karen Smith. Shortly after the board appointed Sousek and Smith, three more board members tendered their resignations — Chuck Dallas and Michael Sleeper, both who are under recall, along with Chris Gull.

Musolff said he does not plan to step down from the school board and plans to remain in his current post as president. His seat will next be up for election in April 2023.

“I will not leave my post on the school board,” Musolff said. “I made an obligation for a three-year term. I plan to stay for a minimum of those three years, and I feel it’s important to do so.”

Musolff anticipated using CESA 8 as a resource in the coming months with Anderson departing and all new building administrators at most of the schools, many of them coming from outside the district.

“They will assist us with mentoring and other things to help our staff,” Musolff said. “We’ve reached out to them, and they will be giving us some information and ideas they have, and maybe some mentors to help us with the transition.”

Musolff wants things to be open with everyone involved in the future.

“Transparency is a very big thing for me,” Musolff said. “I think the board, at least those who chose to hear from the community, heard a lot of good ideas on how things were going and where things went wrong and how we can move forward to make things even better.”

Anderson has been under fire in recent months, with parents in the district circulating a petition through Change.org demanding her removal. That petition received almost 1,200 signatures between March and April, but it was not presented to the board after Sleeper, who was board president at the time, limited public comments at a board meeting and picked who out of 20 people that signed up would get to speak.

During Anderson’s tenure, she has been criticized from keeping the school district under virtual learning for too long in the latter part of 2021, not communicating with parents when the district’s mask mandate was lifted in spring 2022, keeping quiet that the district was anticipating a $2 million budget deficit for the 2022-23 school year until March and that officials were planning to close a school, among other things.

Musolff anticipated he and other board members would be doing a lot of listening with staff, students, parents and community members to improve the district.

“If you’ve watched over the last few months, there have been more opportunities for community comments,” he said. “If you watch the transition of anger that was happening at an earlier time to what is happening now, it seems as though there is some trust coming back. I firmly believe anytime you have a voice — and that goes for the community and the staff — and talk, that will help you feel better.”

The financial impact of Anderson’s resignation is unclear. Musolff would not comment on whether Anderson’s departure from the district would include paying her for the remainder of her contract.

“There will be certain aspects of that that will be available in the future,” Musolff said.


lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com