RIVERSIDE

Spencer Lueders and his family of six joined the Highland Huskies on the night of July 14.

Oh, Lueders’ official start date as the new Superintendent for Highland Community Schools (and WACO Schools) was July 1.

He represented the district, sitting at the head of the table, at his first Highland School Board meeting 13 days after that.

But on a softball night when Huskie fans, most of them wearing the recognizable red Huskie shirts, packed the school’s softball diamond down the first base line and around the outfield fence, Lueders finally was home. His family was there, too.

“It was great,” he said.

The Huskies won that game July 14, an Iowa 1A Regional championship game that sent the Huskies to their first state tournament since 2014. The next day, Lueders went out and talked to the team.

“I was fortunate enough to watch their game,” Lueders said. “Just being able to share some feedback with them regarding their game and how awesome it is that they’re going to the state tournament.

“That made my day.”

When school begins August 25, this is the Spencer Lueders likely to be seen.

The superintendent’s office at Highland Schools is tucked into a corner office, beyond an outer office, between Highland High School and Highland Junior High School. It’s an inner sanctum where an administrator could close the door and easily hide. But that’s not Lueders’ style. He was principal at Central DeWitt Intermediate School before the Highland and WACO School Boards chose him to replace former superintendent Ken Crawford, who took early retirement. Lueders enjoys being with the kids and the teachers. That won’t change.

“I always truly believe that if you make it a priority to be with your own kids, it will become a priority,” Lueders said during an exclusive one-hour interview with The News. “It’ll be a juggling act at times, for sure. There will be certain needs that will take me away from that, but I can’t lose focus of who we’re truly serving, and that’s our kids.”

It’s not just one building at Highland’s High School and Junior High School campus in rural northeast Washington County that will have Lueders’ attention. Add in Highland Elementary, which is seven miles away near downtown Riverside. And add in the WACO Schools campus 35 miles south in Wayland.

This is where the job changes substantially. While Crawford split his time in favor of Highland on a 4-to-1 basis, the superintendent position was adjusted so that it is a 50-50 split between Highland and WACO.

“I really want to be amongst our kids as much as possible between both districts,” Lueders said. “If you make it a mandatory thing for yourself, then it becomes a priority.”

One example already: The district’s board meeting August 11 began with the kids. The softball team was honored by the School Board in a short ceremony.

“I think that’s a tough balance as a superintendent,” Highland High School and Middle School Principal Angela Hazelett said, “because sort of the nature of superintendent is, you’re one step further away from the kids. I think he will find a good balance of still being able to do all the managerial things because he’s pretty efficient. I think he manages his time very well to be able to, you know, have the softball team in here at the board meeting and get through all the board work.”

What about the first day of school? Lueders plans to be at both places. The morning in one district community, then the afternoon at the other district. On July 1, his first day, he did precisely that.

“I thought, first day, officially on the job, be important to be at both districts,” Lueders said. “I think there are certain days that call for that. As much as there is time on the road, I think it’s important to be amongst our people and kids.”

And then, there is the red and the blue thing. Red is the dominant color for the Highland Huskies while blue runs the day at WACO. The two schools play each other in every sport.

The thought evokes a hearty laugh.

“I’ve thought about this,” he said. “Luckily enough, I’ve got a couple of shirts that represent both school districts. I’ll probably be rocking to both of those.”

As much of a change that this will be in Highland, it will be the same in Wayland, a village of less than 1,000 population in Henry County where WACO Schools are based.

“The people at WACO are extremely excited to be able to have someone that’s going to be a little bit more than in years past,” Lueders said. “I’m very much a people’s first type of leader in terms of serving. I’m going to be out as much as I can in front of people. It’s hard for me behind the desk.”

When duties do send Lueders to WACO, perhaps even when unscheduled, his experienced administrative team at Highland will carry on, a team that includes Hazelett, Elementary School Principal Jane O’Leary, and High School/Junior High School Assistant Principal Bill Zywiec, who himself was a finalist for the superintendent job.

“We know there’s going to be things that come up in the school year that are going to pull me in one direction or the other,” Lueders said. “But at least having that in mind before the start of the school year is key for the people that I work with here and there so they can get a little bit of a routine going.”

Lueders has already put his mark on the district’s technology. A new website is scheduled to make its debut on the first day of school.

“He’s doing some innovative things already right off the bat,” Hazelett said. “Updating the website, changing our messaging system. Our messaging system was kind of antiquated, so it’s been nice looking at a better system that I think is going to be user friendly for more people.”

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If you want to really know Spencer Lueders, then look no further than his family.

His dad, JD, was his wrestling coach in high school.

His mom was an associate at Central DeWitt.

His grandfather, Bob, coached for 25 years at Clinton High School, won a state title and was inducted into the Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame. The school hosts a wrestling invitational named after him. He was a longtime shop teacher in school.

The dad-son relationship is a close one.

“He’s somebody that I call pretty frequently, at least a couple of times a week,” Lueders said. “He’s got a leadership position at a chemical factory right outside of Clinton. He oversees a lot of people. So we talk strategy often times. Pretty similar across organizations.

“The route we know and the most important things are relationships. He’s somebody that really models that well. I talk to him very frequently about those things and what I can do to influence our people and find the best solutions possible.”

A similar bond extends to Central DeWitt. Lueders spent the last two years at Central DeWitt Intermediate School as principal. Before that, he was a teacher. His oldest son went to kindergarten there.

“It was really hard,” Lueders said about leaving for a new job. “I started teaching there straight out of college. I student taught there.”

At Highland, Lueders will see strong family bonds.

Carrie Wieland, the high school’s head softball coach for 20 years, is assisted by her niece, Samantha Cox.

Jody Fink is athletics and activities director for the high school and junior high school, and coaches girls basketball. His wife, Karen, is a School Board member. They have two children at the high school, including daughter, Kamryn, who plays on the girls basketball team.

Jane O’Leary, who is principal at Highland Elementary, has a son, John, who served on the School Board until he moved out of the district’s geographic area earlier this year.

Allen Rath, who still holds a handful of baseball records when he played here, is back at Highland as head baseball coach.

Kelsey Hora, who helped lead the volleyball team win a near-record 22 matches in 2016 as a senior, is back this year as an assistant coach.

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Lueders, who holds a superintendent specialist and special education supervision certificate from Northern Iowa, and a bachelor’s degree from Ashford University, is taking command of Highland Schools at a challenging time.

“It really is,” he said in agreement. “I think it’s always been a challenging position, but I think you truly saw maybe what feels like the peak of that challenge around school closure and Covid. I remember looking around the state at that time and there were so many superintendents that were getting out.”

Since the Covid pandemic in 2020, ongoing legislative changes in Des Moines have affected financial budgets for public school districts. The Trump Administration is dismantling the federal Department of Education. And the district is still trying win a legal battle over the November 2024 bond referendum that has $15 million and extensive renovations hanging in the balance.

“We hope for the best-case scenario, what’s going to be best for our kids,” Lueders said.

“In a sense, it is a little bit of a waiting game. As much as I’d like to influence the decision being made, it feels a little bit that I can’t. The hardest piece of it is, I’m very much a go-getter. I like to change. I like to be helpful. It’s not necessarily something that I can influence in that way.”

One of the big changes at Highland last year was the introduction of a four-day school week for most of the school year. The move was fully supported by the School Board and a large majority of the district’s teaching staff, following a trend that was already established at WACO Schools. The four-day week is in place this year, as well. It is a procedure that turns Fridays into professional development days for teachers instead of classroom days.

One of the reasons for the change to four days was teacher retainment and recruiting. Highland’s district is beginning a new school year with all positions filled.

“We want to retain our people,” Lueders said. “We know people move on from small districts. As much as we want to keep them, as much as possible, it is nice to be able to say, ‘Hey, we have a recruiting tool.’”