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Veteran administrator to become next superintendent of Stafford schools

Free Lance-Star - 7/18/2018

July 18--The next leader of Stafford County Public Schools has nearly two decades of experience as a superintendent with three school systems.

The School Board voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a four-year contract for Scott R. Kizner, who has been superintendent of Harrisonburg City Public Schools since 2010. Kizner, 60, will assume the Stafford superintendent job effective Sept. 1, or three days before the start of the 2018 -- 19 school year.

Kizner will make $226,000 annually, according to his contract, which expires June 30, 2022. The contract states that any salary increase for him should equal the average annual pay raise for administrators or the average increase for teachers, whichever of the two is less.

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School Board Chairwoman Patricia Healy said Kizner could not be at the meeting in person because he is taking part in an education conference in Helsinki, Finland, and Berlin. She said Kizner will visit Stafford next month and will move to the county with his wife.

A bio of Kizner on the Harrisonburg school system's website says he has more than 18 years of experience as a superintendent, including six years with Martinsville City Public Schools and a five-year stint with Westerly Public Schools in Rhode Island.

Kizner, who holds a doctorate in philosophy from Virginia Tech, has also been a special education teacher and director, a school psychologist and assistant superintendent of instruction for the Northern Shenandoah region. His wife, Lori, is executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. They have three grown children, one of whom is a special education teacher in Loudoun County.

Healy called Harrisonburg a "progressive and diverse growing school system that ranks as one of the best in Virginia." "As the leader of one of the fastest-growing school systems in Virgina, Dr. Kizner had great success obtaining the funds needed to build new schools and complete needed capital ... projects," she added.

The School Board will cover Kizner's health insurance premium, according to his contract. He will also receive $22,600 per year for a deferred compensation plan and $4,000 per year for professional development expenses.

Kizner faces a tough political environment that includes long-standing tension between the School Board and Board of Supervisors--which controls the purse strings--and a countywide elementary school redistricting process on the horizon.

"He's looking forward to new challenges here in Stafford, and we will certainly give them to him," Healy said with a laugh.

Kizner succeeds Bruce Benson, who ended his four-year stint in Stafford last month to become the leader of North Carolina'sAlamance -- Burlington School System. Benson's predecessors, David Sawyer and Randy Bridges, lasted just three years and two and a half years, respectively, leading to seemingly constant uncertainty about the school system's direction.

Pamela Kahle, Stafford's associate superintendent of instructional services, will continue serving as acting superintendent through August.

School Board member Holly Hazard emphasized what she described as Kizner's longevity in Harrisonburg. "I will tell you he will have a heart-broken community," she said of Harrisonburg.

In a tweet Tuesday, the Harrisonburg school system thanked Kizner for "his fearless, innovative leadership."

Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, a search firm the School Board hired to recruit the next superintendent, released a report stating that feedback from teachers, parents and others showed that stakeholders wanted "someone who will live in Stafford, become deeply embedded in the community and want to stay."

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(c)2018 The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Va.)

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