KINGSLEY AREA SCHOOLS: Five candidates vie for top post

William Perkins, The Record-Eagle, Traverse City, Mich.
Updated ·4 min read

Aug. 4—KINGSLEY — The Kingsley Area Schools Board of Education has narrowed down a list to five applicants to consider for superintendent.

In a special board meeting this week, officials chose from a list of 25 applicants who had responded to the district's posting, before voting for their five first-round candidates.

This comes after outgoing Superintendent Brad Reyburn announced that he'd be departing to take up a position with Fremont Public Schools.

By the end of August, Reyburn will have been in the Kingsley position for about seven months.

The candidates to replace Reyburn are: Joshua Rothwell, Forest Area Community Schools superintendent; Bill Chilman IV, Beal City Public Schools superintendent; Thomas Langdon, a former superintendent in Walkerville, Sturgis and Big Rapids school districts; Steve Wilson, former Bronson Community Schools Superintendent; and Travis Walker, Brandywine Community Schools Superintendent.

Joshua Rothwell

Rothwell has been superintendent of Forest Area Community Schools since 2014. For five of those years, he worked simultaneously as Fife Lake Elementary Principal, a position he started in in 2010. The district has a student population of 482, according to Michigan School Data.

Prior to that, he worked for 12 years as a teacher in the Kingsley Area Schools district.

Bill Chilman IV

Chilman has been superintendent of Beal City Public Schools since 2007. The district has a student population of 666.

Prior to that, he worked for four years as a teacher at Brimley Area Public Schools and 10 years as the Meridian Junior High School principal.

Thomas Langdon

Langdon has had two stints as superintendent of Walkerville Public Schools — one from 2000 to 2004, and the other beginning in 2018 until this year. The district has a student population of 302.

Between those two positions, he served for seven years as superintendent at Sturgis Public Schools and another seven at Big Rapids Public Schools. He is the CEO of Langdon and Associates, an educational leadership consulting firm.

Steve Wilson

Wilson parted ways with Bronson Community Schools earlier this summer, after serving as its superintendent since 2020. The district has a student population of 1,002.

Prior to Bronson, he worked in the Constantine Public Schools district for 13 years, serving some of that time as a middle school principal before becoming superintendent in 2016.

Earlier this year, he was the other finalist against Reyburn for the position of Fremont Public Schools superintendent, but was not selected.

Travis WalkerWalker has been superintendent at Brandywine Community Schools for a year. A year prior to that, he was a principal at Niles Brandywine Middle School and High School. The district has a student population of 1,287.

He was a teacher at Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools for three years, and at Kaleva Norman Dickson for six. He was a principal at Constantine High School for five years, starting in 2015.

Interviews with these candidates will take place starting at 5 p.m., Aug. 14 and 15. The second round of interviews are expected to take place Aug. 25.

The hiring process is being facilitated by Shawn Lewis-Lakin of the Michigan Association of School Boards.

Reyburn's contract had a base pay rate of $134,000 a year, with a $5,000 moving stipend.

The former Newaygo Public Schools principal started his position with the Kingsley school district four months ago, and had not yet permanently relocated to northern Michigan. This week, he accepted a job with Fremont Public Schools, roughly 10 minutes from his home, as previously reported.

He had replaced former Superintendent Keith Smith, who resigned in September 2022 and took a $700,000 buyout, after holding the top job for more than 12 years. Smith and Kingsley school board members said that that agreement was reached after a long closed session discussion about how best to move the district forward.

In the months leading up to the break, district leadership fielded intense criticism from some members of the community regarding transparency and Smith's leadership and treatment of teachers.

Smith resigned in exchange for a full buyout of the remaining 5-year rolling contract that was offered to him by the school board.

After leaving Kingsley, Smith had less than a year before reaching eligibility for retirement. On Jan. 1, he signed a six-month contract to work part-time for Vanderbilt Area Schools. According to previous reporting, Smith said that, at the end of his time with Vanderbilt, he could retire then, but did not know if he would.

Report for America corps member and data journalist William T. Perkins' reporting is made possible by a partnership between the Record-Eagle and Report for America, a journalism service project founded by the nonprofit Ground Truth Project. Generous community support helps fund a local share of the Record-Eagle/RFA partnership. To support RFA reporters in Traverse City, go to www.record-eagle.com/rfa.