Hillsdale is searching for a new superintendent in the wake of Vondra's retirement

HILLSDALE — Hillsdale Community Schools Superintendent Shawn Vondra will retire at the end of the 2023-2024 school year.

“It has been my absolute pleasure and honor to serve our community," Vondra said. "The students, parents and community members are wonderful. Hillsdale Community Schools has an outstanding faculty, support staff, administrators and Board of Education; all of whom are dedicated to the families of this community. The community of Hillsdale values and shows strong support to have a quality public school system. I look forward to seeing the continued success and accomplishments of the students at Hillsdale Community Schools.”

Vondra graduated from Michigan State University and began his career as an elementary teacher at Mason, Michigan. He has served as a teacher and administrator in the Hillsdale Community Schools system for the past 25 years.

Vondra was originally hired by the district as an elementary teacher in 1998 and taught at both Mauck School and Gier Elementary School. In 2001, Vondra was selected to be the principal of Bailey Elementary School. In addition to the principalship duties, Vondra was the director of State & Federal Programs as well as the Curriculum Director for a period of time.

In January of 2011, Vondra was selected to be the superintendent. During his tenure, the district has achieved multiple state and national level recognitions of student achievements in academics, college & career readiness and extracurricular accomplishments.

Hillsdale's Board of Education has begun the search process for a new superintendent and will conduct special meetings throughout the process.  All of these sessions are open to the public.

The first round of interviews will be held at 6 p.m. April 1 and April 2 with final interviews scheduled for 6 p.m. April 8.

The new superintendent will begin working July 1.

In an effort to gather feedback from all stakeholders, the Board of Education is seeking input. This information will help guide the selection criteria. This survey is available Jan. 17 through Feb. 7 at surveymonkey.com/r/hillsdalesearch.

This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: Hillsdale searches for new superintendent as Vondra retires