Doug Van Zyl

Doug Van Zyl, who has served as superintendent of the Fort Dodge Community School District for the past eight years, has accepted the superintendent’s job in the St. Joseph School District, St. Joseph, Missouri.

The FDCSD and the SJSD made the announcement Thursday.

“The board was delighted with the candidates we had to select from and believe that Dr. Van Zyl is a perfect match — in background and experience — for St. Joseph,” St. Joseph School Board members Lori Prussman and Larry Koch said in a written statement.

Van Zyl helped pass a $27 million obligation bond leading to the construction of a new Duncombe Elementary School and improvements at Fort Dodge Senior High in the final years of his tenure in Fort Dodge.

He was one of three finalists for the position.

Van Zyl was hired on a three-year contract. His salary will be $210,000 for the first two years of the contract. He will begin his duties in Missouri on July 1.

In the summer of 2017, the FDCSD board renewed Van Zyl’s contract for three years. His annual salary in Fort Dodge is $204,532. His last day will be June 30, pending his resignation.

The FDCSD board is meeting in open session today to discuss the search process for Van Zyl’s replacement. The meeting will be held in the FDCSD Central Administration Building at 4 p.m.

Stu Cochrane, president of the FDCSD board, said the district has improved during Van Zyl’s tenure.

“It has been an extreme pleasure to work with Doug over the last eight years,” Cochrane said. “He has been the consummate professional. He has done everything as a board and as a district we could have ever hoped from a superintendent.”

Cochrane said Van Zyl delivered on the promises he made to the board when he was hired.

“His leadership has been vital for us in taking the district forward on our mission,” he said. “During his tenure we have been successful in updating and improving facilities. We have had a tremendous amount of success in his additions to our administrative staff. I think we have flourished academically and every other aspect. I have enjoyed that relationship a great deal. He has been someone we have been able to rely on and trust that he’s going to follow through and do exactly what he represented to us eight years ago when he got here.”

Van Zyl said the position in St. Joseph is an opportunity for him to grow in his career.

“Their district is about 11,000 students,” he said. “Professionally, the levels and advancements in education in the position I sit in that would be considered a pretty good advancement or opportunity to move vertically in that process.”

He added, “That’s not what drove me, but it’s kind of a backdoor benefit to that process. No matter the size of school district, my goal and philosophy is we are doing it for the kids. Whether it’s 10 kids or 11,000 kids, it really doesn’t matter. Our focus needs to be what are we doing better for our kids.”

Van Zyl has served as Fort Dodge superintendent since the fall of 2010. He replaced Linda Brock, who resigned as superintendent in May of that year.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary and physical education from Northwestern College, in Orange City, and a master’s degree in educational administration from Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas. He completed his doctorate in 2011 at the University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri.

Prior to coming to Fort Dodge, Van Zyl had served the Harrisonville Community Schools for the five years, three of those as superintendent. Prior to being named superintendent at Harrisonville, Van Zyl was the district’s assistant superintendent. He has also been a teacher and assistant principal in Texas and an assistant principal at Independence, Missouri.

When he arrived in Fort Dodge, the district had been experiencing financial distress. In his first year, about $3 million had to be cut from the district’s budget.

“When we first arrived, there was quite a deficit or negative feeling around finances,” Van Zyl said. “We didn’t feel like the budget was very stable. Cuts and reductions had to be made. We worked hard to tighten things up and build some consistency within the budget. The board worked hard, our finance department worked hard, our staff worked hard to just start trimming things down to those necessities.”

He added, “We have now been able to, in my opinion, build a very stable budget and a budget, in my opinion, if you look at most school districts across the state, most school districts would like to have.”

He credited the FDCSD financial services department.

“Most school districts are not in the position we are in and that goes back to Jack Christensen and Brandon Hansel, our finance folks during the years I have been here and the credit of the board as well,” he said. “They had to make some tough decisions. It seems like things have worked out much more positively. Not that it wasn’t difficult, but I think you make the difficult decisions early on and that has led to a much more positive approach in what we have been able to do in hiring staff and retaining staff — at a time when the state is not really funding public education to the level it needs to be funded.”

Through communication, the bond issue passed two years ago with a 70 percent approval rating.

“That’s something this district and community needs to be proud of,” he said. “To have a bond pass with over 70 percent of people voting for it, that doesn’t always mean everybody is happy, but they understood what we were asking for and saw that there was value and worth in what would be taking place. Nobody wants to have their taxes increased, but I think if you do a good job of communicating and follow through with what you say you are going to do, I think most people, especially in the Midwest, if you can lay out a logical and practical plan, most people understand that and are willing to then support it. I think that’s what we did. You say it and then you do exactly what you say you are going to do. You are transparent and let people see what’s going on.”

The Duncombe school cost about $15 million, while the improvements to FDSH made up the remainder of the dollars.

St. Joseph is a location that makes sense for Van Zyl, as his some of his family is moving south.

“At the end of the summer my son is getting married and they are going to move to Atlanta,” he said. “St. Joseph is about 30 minutes from the Kansas City airport. When my oldest daughter graduates, she will go to law school and she said she would be looking in the Kansas City area for law school.”

Elizabeth Van Zyl will graduate from FDSH this spring. She plans to attend Drake University in Des Moines next year, where she also plans to play soccer.

“Having been in Missouri for 12 years, we still have some good friends and connections in the Kansas City area,” he said. “It does move us a little further away from my family and my in-laws, but it was something my family and I prayed about and we felt like it would be the right situation for us.”

Van Zyl may assist the district in the search for his replacement.

“They are not going to wait around,” he said. “I think they will start acting as quickly as they can. They are not going to rush, but they are going to find the best person to fill this position. Whatever role I can play to help them in that process I have offered to help in whatever way, shape, or form they want. Or if they want me to stay out of it.”

He added, “I think there is some level of expertise from someone who has been in my position for eight years that can be passed along. If it is to be utilized, great. If not, great. I will support the board in that process.”

In the meantime, Van Zyl will continue his work.

“In the next five months I won’t stop doing my job,” he said. “There’s still a lot to do and a lot to accomplish. We are going to keep moving forward and getting those things done.”

He added, “After you have invested eight years of your life in something, I don’t think you just completely walk away and throw up your hands. I believe we are leaving the school district better than when we first got here. But the goal is not for it to settle and sit where it is, it’s to continue to grow and improve. You want that to be the legacy of what happens. You started something and the people who are still here continue to carry it out and the next person on board keeps moving. Maybe not in the exact same direction, but you continue to see that growth and development.”

Van Zyl said the people are what he will miss most.

“Being in education you’re going to miss the kids,” he said. “You miss the kids walking up and saying hi or giving you a hug. That’s also the positive thing about education — hopefully that gets reestablished where I go. The team we built here is a great team. The willingness for people to not settle for being OK. We have a lot of folks who are continuing to strive to get better at what they do and the craft of teaching. Those are all positive things and things I will miss. I had a great school board to work with. The people the community has selected to be on the board I think have done a great job. Hopefully I have made their job easier, I know they have made my job easier. Their willingness to work together to work with me and that’s not always the case in the position that I am in. But here in Fort Dodge that has stood out.”

Earning the trust of the public will be an important step in his new position as it was in Fort Dodge.

“Many of the things we did to start out with stabilizing the budget and earn some of that public trust,” he said. “To be up front and open and communicate collaboratively with people and help people see the positive things going on in school districts and with our kids.”

“Don’t focus on the negative things that hit social media and get written about,” he said. “We really worked hard to get the message out about what Fort Dodge schools is about and what our kids can do in and out of the classroom. Those are the types of things I think can transfer to where I am going in St. Jo. Those are things I have learned here that are needed in the position that I am going to and hopefully that’s what I bring to the table.”