Craig hopes to build on Cardinal's successes

Aug. 5—ELDON — When James Craig showed up at the Sibley-Ocheyedan Community School District four years ago, a construction project was going on. Flash forward to 2023, the same is true at Cardinal.

Given that context, what is it that Craig wants to build?

"Anything I have on my list right now is in the initial stage of consideration," he said. "In the end, I want to make sure that we continue to have a place where we can serve our students, provide a quality workplace for our staff and provide stability financially."

Craig is beginning his first year as Cardinal's superintendent after four years at Sibley-Ocheyedan, five hours northwest near the Minnesota border.

And he's aware of the positive situation he's stepping into — his predecessor, Joel Pedersen said it on his way out, and Craig acknowledged it multiple times during an interview about three weeks into his tenure. Cardinal has its first change at the top since 2010, but has arguably never been in a better position.

"The leadership they've had over the last decade and a half, there were so many great things that happened, and I don't want to come in and change things for the sake of change," he said. "There's nothing that's on fire, or anything the district is going to be in a mess about.

"So this first year I want to make sure I'm listening and helping, and try to see everything there is to see."

Leader of his own band

The path to administration didn't come quickly for Craig, who began his educational career as an instrumental band instructor. He spent 17 years as a band instructor at various schools, but the itch to interact with wider audiences proved appealing.

"I loved teaching band and had wanted to be a music teacher forever," he said. "And then I had a principal that encouraged me to consider administration. So I pursued my masters, even though I was still happy teaching at that point.

"If I got an administrative position, great, but I wasn't really convinced to make the change," Craig said. "But I grew more fond of the leadership conversations I was having with my students. I had around 100 band kids, but I wanted those conversations with all kids and staff members."

Craig has a knack of technology and public relations, which he felt made him a good fit for an administrative role. He started a vlog on YouTube while at Sibley-Ocheyedan and has continued it at Cardinal; mainly to get the school district's message across with up-to-date information. In the near future, he'll be adding interviews with new Cardinal staffers.

"I just feel that the superintendent position fits my personality better. PR is a big part of the superintendent role, and I really enjoy data and numbers," he said. "So working with the budget, working on projects and figuring out where the money is going to come from ... all those things really interest me."

First administration steps, and challenges

The bearded Craig started his administrative path as a high school principal at Southeast Valley, in the southwest Iowa town of Corning. Then, he went to Sibley-Ocheyedan starting with the 2019-20 school year — in other words, the COVID-19 year.

"To me, it was very easy because we did what we were told, and when it was time to shut down, we shut down," he said. "We followed the guidance we were provided, and when we were allowed to reopen, we reopened."

Still, he didn't dismiss the challenge of returning to school that summer.

"If there's nothing you have a choice over, you follow directions and get through it," he said. "And unfortunately, that had consequences academically for kids. That was a crazy experience because no one had been through that. When you're given today's framework and tomorrow it's different, you just got to roll with the punches."

Like Cardinal, Sibley-Ocheyedan under Craig's watch made mental health a high priority for students and staff, as the district hired a third counselor and added a bus route to account for the pandemic.

"The school closure definitely impacted us socially," he said. "When we came back to school, we spent most of the year trying to re-instill what everybody had been used to since education was black and white, just to find that work ethic to turn in assignments again."

Craig did notice adverse effects of how the pandemic affected younger grades as opposed to the older grades.

"Those kids in the lower grades missed essential instruction that they were going to have to catch up on," he said. "In the older grades, things were going pretty well academically, but it was in March of 2021 when it really hit that the instruction missed isn't connected, even though test scores weren't that different.

"By the third year, we were back to as close as we could remember," Craig said. "But there were a whole bunch of new frustrations and new considerations to think about with staff and kids moving forward."

From one strong district to another

Under Craig's watch, Sibley-Ocheyedan was most a "high-performing" or "commendable" school district. Cardinal has been similar over the last few years.

So, why leave one strong foundation to go to another?

"The biggest reason was family. I'm originally from Leon, my wife is from Orient, so it's about half as close to family," he said. "Northwest Iowa for us was pretty secluded, just because we didn't know a lot of people and it was so far from home.

"Cardinal was a very attractive district because of the academics, and lots of opportunity for students. But also the Top Workplace awards," Craig said. "I mean, who wouldn't want to come to a place like that? There's something about this place that is bringing people to it. I've enjoyed and found more success in rural schools I've worked for."

Of his time at Sibley-Ocheyedan, Craig was proud of how he was able to get a better pay schedule for his employees, something that took place last year.

"I was able to provide salary increases and raise the minimum wage to a point that made us competitive with other local businesses," he said. "We also created a bonus for anybody past their masters, so they wouldn't have to continue to go to school to get a bump in their salary.

"I will say going into this year was the least amount of turnover we had experienced in probably five years. Those were significant accomplishments financially."

Heading for the future

In the near term, Craig wants to use the time to dig in and get to know his staff this year. He wants to know what their concerns are and what positives can be continued.

"You always get to that point where you do something and somebody goes, 'We've never done that before,' or 'Well, that's not how we're used to doing it,'" he said. "So I want them to tell me why something isn't right, or why I messed up, so I can understand and then either I can explain why we're going to do something different, or how I can fix something.

"I want to try to be flexible. We've got a great staff in place. Our principals are outstanding, and our teaching staff is super. You have to trust the people you hire to do the job, to do the job."

Cardinal's open enrollment has spiked over the last decade, and Craig hopes that continues. However, the key word is "open," meaning students from the area are enrolling in the school district.

"When you look at Cardinal, our resident enrollment has trended down, but obviously we have the open enrollment coming in," he said. "Open enrollment obviously creates positive budget impacts, but it also creates concerns for future planning. Not only are you planning on the unknown of your resident enrollment, but also the open enrollment.

"So there are a lot of good things, but a lot of different challenges."

— Chad Drury can be reached at cdrury@ottumwacourier.com, and on Twitter @ChadDrury