By By ANDY HAMILTON / Niles Daily Star
NILES – Superintendent Gary Rider sat at the Brandywine Community Schools Board of Education table for the last time Monday.
Rider has left Brandywine to become the superintendent at Thornapple Kellogg Schools in Middleville. He began at Brandywine in June 2004, shortly after the district's previous bond issue passed.
On Monday, he called his time as a Bobcat a "tremendous experience."
"I'm very grateful to the board and to the community," Rider said.
As part of the regular meeting, board members voted to accept Rider's resignation and also to hire as interim superintendent Gary Campbell. This will be Campbell's second interim superintendent role with Brandywine.
"With regret, we accept the resignation," board president Phil Bozung said.
Campbell will start March 1 and will be working with the district two to three days a week, Bozung said. He will be paid a per diem salary of $500 each day he works at Brandywine.
Taking the lead on the Brandywine bond campaign and filling the role of interim assistant superintendent is Merritt Elementary School Principal Karen Weimer. Shirley Dodson is covering Weimer's position at Merritt.
The search for a new Brandywine superintendent continues Monday, March 5, at 8:15 p.m. in Carlson Lecture Hall at Brandywine Middle/High School, where the board will have a general meeting with Dale P. Schreuder, regional president of southwest Michigan for the executive search firm Michigan Leadership Institute.
The meeting with MLI follows a bond campaign meeting featuring a presenter from Thrun Law who will speak on campaign election laws. That meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the middle/high school Media Center.
The following Monday, on March 12, Schreuder will survey Brandywine administrators and staff for their thoughts on the new superintendent. At 6 p.m. in the Carlson Lecture Hall, Schreuder will meet with the board of education in a public forum to discuss a profile for the new superintendent based on the day's discussions with staff.
The regular board of education meeting will follow.
Rider began at Brandywine in time to head a bond issue that had passed just months before his arrival. With Rider at the helm, the district was able to complete more than $600,000 of unplanned improvements with money from the 2003 bond. Plus, Brandywine also successfully refinanced the 2003 bond and, come July, will save about $750,000.