The Fort Wayne Community Schools board voted Tuesday afternoon to bring one of the district’s own back to Fort Wayne, approving a three-year contract for Mark Daniel, who will become the district’s next superintendent.
Daniel, who begins his new job on July 1, is replacing Wendy Robinson, who announced her retirement in fall 2019 after 17 years in the post, and 47 years as a district teacher and administrator.
Daniel graduated from North Side High School in 1979, and returned there to teach math and coach in 1986 after college. He left North Side in 1995 to become an assistant principal at Leo Junior-Senior High School, becoming principal at Leo in 1998.
He left Indiana in 2010 to become superintendent of the 2,400-student school district in Dowagiac, MI. Daniel left Dowagiac in 2014 to lead the McLean County Unit District No. 5 in Normal, IL, with an enrollment of 13,300 students.
Board President Julia Hollingsworth said board members were most impressed with Daniel’s wide variety of experience, as a business and math teacher, a coach, an assistant principal and principal, and as a superintendent. She said he is also a proven collaborator, and has forged connections with students, teachers, parents, and communities.
“We were also attracted by his Fort Wayne connection,” Hollingsworth said. “He’s a North Side graduate. He and his wife Janet, and three of his daughters graduated from North Side. He taught at North Side, and coached, and of course, was a superintendent.”
Daniel’s appointment was the result of a national search process, which began with community input advising the board on the qualities that Robinson’s successor should bring to the job. A Chicago-based search firm, Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, used that feedback to develop a leadership profile and identify prospective candidates for interviews.
When the Covid-19 pandemic closed schools and businesses all over the country in March, the board was forced to innovate. Hollingsworth said the board interviewed six candidates virtually, and selected three for final interviews – all conducted virtually in late April.
During her introduction, Hollingsworth said that Tuesday was the first time that Daniel and board members had met one another in person.
Daniel paid tribute to his predecessor.
“When you follow a leader such as Dr. Wendy Robinson, you merely stand on her shoulders,” Daniel said, “and what she’s done for this community for the past 17 years as superintendent, and the other 23 years as an educator in this district. I’m very humble and very proud.”
Daniel’s contract will pay him a base salary of $215,000 annually, with the possibility of a $10,000 performance bonus each year if he receives high review ratings from the board.
Daniel said he is eager to get going on his “100 Day Plan,” as requested by the board during the interview process, which he said will begin with intense listening – to students, teachers, business leaders, community members – all of whom have valuable insight to contribute.
Robinson will hand over the reins of the 30,000-student district in the midst of a turbulent period for Indiana public schools and their often angry battles with state officials. Those battles have included the advent of vouchers, the increased promotion of charter schools, budget cuts, tax caps, changing accountability standards, and a rocky relationship between the state legislature and teachers.