Nordonia Hills Superintendent Joe Clark picked to head Westerville City Schools

One of Summit County's longest-serving school district superintendents has been picked to lead Westerville City Schools, located on the northeast side of Columbus in Franklin and Delaware counties.

Pending contract negotiations, Nordonia Hills Superintendent Joe Clark is expected to start in Westerville Oct. 1, after the Westerville Board of Education agreed to hire him on Friday.

Clark, who just finished his 12th year as superintendent of Nordonia Hills City Schools, is the northern Summit County school district's 10th and longest-serving superintendent. He served a total of 14 years at Nordonia Hills − his first two as assistant superintendent.

His latest contract with the school district, for five years commencing Aug. 1 at a base pay of $154,000, had been approved by the Nordonia Hills Board of Education in February 2022.

Clark will be going from a school district with 3,500 students to one with nearly 15,000. He said he's proud of the work he's done since 2011, but feels it's time to do more.

"The team here has accomplished so much − everything that needs to be accomplished has been accomplished, except for new facilities. We're a 5-star district. We're doing just incredible things in the arts, athletics and academics.

"I was ready for a new challenge and Westerville is like, the 12th-largest district in the state with three high schools and 15,000 kids. That's going to give me a lot of really good work to do and I'm gonna try to replicate a lot of the success we had in Nordonia."

He said the people in Nordonia Hills helped make his time there a success.

"I can't say enough great things about my time in Nordonia," he said. "I think it's the best staff ever and it's a great community. I've worked with outstanding parents, volunteers, boosters ... I've been blessed in my career, so it's a bittersweet thing for me. I'm thrilled at the opportunity, but I'm absolutely gonna miss the people."

The Nordonia Hills Board of Education said in a release that it would begin a search for his replacement immediately.

Nordonia Hills Board of Education president Chad Lahrmer said he had known Clark was planning to move on.

"It's very much mixed emotions that he's going. I'm really happy for him," Lahrmer said. "It's a new challenge in his career. It's a much, much bigger school district, but I'm very sad to see him go. He's been great."

The school district recently hired a new treasurer, Kyle Kiffer, whose first day was Aug. 1. He previously served as treasurer/CFO at Streetsboro City Schools and the Windham Exempted Village Schools.

Lahrmer said Kiffer had also been aware Clark would be leaving and that there may be a challenge settling in while the board looks for a replacement. The district eliminated the assistant superintendent position when Clark was hired.

He noted the beginning of the schools' calendar year in August is a hard time of year to find staff, especially top administrators. However, he noted Clark doesn't leave until Oct. 1.

"We have almost two full months, so we will have to sit down with the board and maybe some administration and Dr. Clark and just try to see if he has any thoughts or recommendations and then sit down with the the rest of the board and the administration and plan something out moving forward," Lahrmer said.

In May, Clark had been one of two finalists to lead Olentangy Local Schools, located next to Westerville and one of the largest in the state with around 23,000 students. The other candidate was Olentangy's chief operations officer, who eventually got the $215,000-per-year job.

Before taking over leadership in Nordonia, Clark served as the district's assistant superintendent; as assistant superintendent for Kent City Schools; assistant principal, principal and assistant superintendent for Barberton City Schools; and high school English teacher for Springfield Local Schools. He also serves as a professor for the American College of Education, based in Indianapolis.

Clark has a master’s degree in educational leadership and a doctorate in K-12 leadership with a focus in school law from Kent State University.

Westerville launched an "aggressive timeline" to find a replacement for former Superintendent John Kellogg announced in March that he would leave at the end of June to begin a superintendent-in-residence position with the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio and Columbus State Community College.

Eric Marotta can be reached at emarotta@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarottaEric.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Nordonia Hills Superintendent Joe Clark lo lead Westerville schools