Elmbrook's Mark Hansen named state Superintendent of the Year

An area superintendent has been named the state Superintendent of the Year.

The Elmbrook School District's Mark Hansen was named the 2024 Wisconsin Superintendent of the Year by the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators (WASDA). He is scheduled to be presented with the award at the joint Wisconsin Association of School Boards/WASDA/Wisconsin Association of School Business Officials (WASBO) Convention in Milwaukee in January.

He will also have the chance to be named a finalist for AASA's National Superintendent of the Year Award, which will be announced in February.

Hansen said he learned about winning the state award from WASDA executive director Jon Bales.

"I immediately thought about all of the amazing people I get to work with and the families we get to serve and the students that are under our tutelage to learn and am just so grateful and humble and proud of all the things that our staff and students accomplish everyday," Hansen said in an Oct. 31 phone interview.

Here's what to know about Hansen and the award.

Who is Mark Hansen?

Hansen has been the Elmbrook's superintendent since 2012. Before arriving at Elmbrook, Hansen was the executive director of curriculum and instruction and chief academic officer for the Waukesha and Pewaukee school districts, respectively, according to a news release from WASDA.

Hansen was also principal of Waukesha South High School for nine years. In 2006, he was named the Wisconsin Principal of the Year and that same year was named a national finalist by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Before serving as Waukesha South's principal, Hansen started his educational career in 1993 as a history teacher in the Pewaukee School District, the news release said.

Hansen graduated from Oconomowoc High School and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He received a master's degree in educational leadership from Marian University of Fond du Lac, and his superintendent's licensure and a doctorate in educational leadership from Cardinal Stritch University.

What is the criteria for the award selection?

Candidates are "measured against criteria such as successfully meeting the needs of students; personal and organizational communication; professionalism; participation in local community activities; and an understanding of regional, national, and international issues," according to WASDA's news release.

"This program is designed to recognize the outstanding leadership of active, front-line superintendents. It is not recognition of service at retirement or a program to reward current state or national leaders," the release said.

Candidates can be nominated by school board members, colleagues or community members, according to Bales.

What was Hansen recognized for?

Hansen was recognized for his leadership in literacy, college and career learning and community engagement, among other things, according to WASDA's news release.

"He is, I'd say, unrelenting in being evidence-based, continuous improvement for student results. I think the status of that district relative to student outcomes speaks for itself," Bales said, "and it isn't just in typical achievement measures, but also in general opportunities that students have, both in terms of career exploration and frankly, societal readiness.

"They do a very good job of focusing on the whole student that graduates from Elmbrook."

Bales also noted Hansen's commitment to developing people, including students, staff and leaders.

"He has mentored a number of people into the profession, and he has for a number of years been the director at the national level for aspiring superintendents. So very much giving back to the profession and developing strong leaders, many of whom are in superintendent positions in this state," Bales said.

Hansen co-facilitates a school administrators program with Carroll University and is a lead teacher for the American Association of School Administrators National Aspiring Superintendents Program.

"I was fortunate to have some extremely influential people early on in my career that told me, 'Mark, you need to become a principal;' 'Mark, you need to think about the superintendency;' and I did those things, and here we are today," Hansen said. "I want to make sure that I'm doing the same kinds of things for our next generation of leaders in education because this work is really, really important," Hansen said.

The news release also lauded Elmbrook "as a model district for science-based reading instruction for legislators and surrounding districts."

"As cognitive science has evolved over the last decade or so, we've recognized that we might have had gaps in our reading approach, and we started to look carefully at that research and decided that we were going to be moving toward a science-based reading approach for our littlest learners, our early readers," Hansen said.

Hansen said the school piloted that reading approach last year "with some wild success" and hosted the legislators who introduced what became Act 20, which was signed into law in July and emphasizes a phonics-based reading approach.

The news release also said Hansen's "vision to expand college and career learning" led to the LAUNCH program's creation in 2016, "which offers students profession-based learning experiences with local businesses while building a regional talent pipeline."

Junior and senior students in the Elmbrook and Wauwatosa school districts who participate spend part of their day at their high school and the part of their day at a different location, working with business and industry partners, while earning high school and/or college credit, according to the LAUNCH program's website. This school year, the program offers opportunities in 11 "strands," with nine of them hosted in the Elmbrook School District.

Along with education innovation, the news release said Hansen's work in fighting high health care costs has helped free up more money to be spent on teaching and learning, yielding "an additional $45 million for teaching and learning."

Contact Alec Johnson at (262) 875-9469 or alec.johnson@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AlecJohnson12.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Elmbrook superintendent named state superintendent of the year