Chad Brady named new Centreville superintendent
The responsibility of Centreville’s long-term leadership has been placed on the shoulders of Chad Brady.
Following a pair of second-round interviews Saturday, the district’s board of education tapped the 44-year-old Brady as its superintendent. Currently serving as Centreville’s interim superintendent, Brady cited an oft-used statement in reflecting on the situation.
“Coming in as the principal in 2018 was an awesome opportunity and it was where I imagined I’d be for several years. But, obviously, as time went on and things changed, like I said in the interview, I wasn’t looking to become a superintendent, I only wanted to be the superintendent of Centreville Public Schools,” he said. “Look, what I know is I absolutely love the school district, I’m very proud to be a part of the staff, to be able to work with the kids and the community. I’m excited, thrilled, honored and thankful.”
More than 20 applications were submitted after Stephanie Lemmer left the district – St. Joseph County’s fourth-largest K-12 system – in January to accept the superintendent’s job at Pennfield Schools in Battle Creek.
Over the past month, board members selected four candidates and narrowed the field to Brady and Jerome Wolff as finalists. Wolff has served as Nottawa Community School’s superintendent since January 2017.
Brady, who has previously worked as vice principal at Loy Norrix High School, said the Chad Brady who has served as interim superintendent the past three months is the same Chad Brady who will proudly serve as superintendent.
“I only know how to be me and I know how passionate our staff is about our kids and how passionate our community is about our district,” Brady said. “I just want to make sure I do my part to live up to those same expectations and make the difference that we can. We have a phenomenal staff that’s going to make this happen.”
Board president Jeff Troyer afterward said selecting Brady was not a slam dunk, as Wolff was a solid candidate who gave a strong interview. Troyer, however, elaborated on making his choice.
“Both candidates are deeply rooted in Centreville and to be honest, we couldn’t have gone wrong either way,” Troyer said. “Now, and I don’t mind speaking on behalf of the whole board in saying, we had the luxury and opportunity to watch Chad as an interim superintendent for a couple months. I’m amazed at Chad’s honesty and his integrity that he holds so high in his values …he has surpassed every expectation in every single category that we had set for our interim. He’s such a strong leader and he really focuses everything on his relationship-building, with students, parents, staff and he just goes a long way to show the leader that he’s going to be for the long-term.”
Troyer reflected on the strong candidate pool and the fact Brady and Wolff appeared poised to make a long-term commitment to the district.
“Centreville is not a large district and we know that anybody who’s young and early in their career, they’re going to want to advance unless there are significant, underlying reasons why they’re vested in the community,” Troyer said. “That’s why we were so fortunate with Jerome and Chad … we fully, wholeheartedly believe that either candidate would be here for a long time.”
Troyer said the board and Brady will enter into negotiations regarding terms of his contract. He said Brady, a Vicksburg resident, will maintain the interim tag until July 1, the start of the district’s fiscal year.
The board has set a salary range of $110,000 to $125,000.
The candidate pool also featured Jeremy Wright, Plainwell High School principal, and Barry Younghans, assistant superintendent of Goshen Community Schools.
This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Chad Brady named new Centreville superintendent
