From the classroom to a state office, Denison and Schleswig’s new superintendent has a wealth of experiences in education.

Last Thursday the Denison and Schleswig school boards announced that they had selected Dr. Kim Buryanek as the next shared superintendent for both schools.

Her selection followed a search process and then an interview with stakeholder groups composed of parents, teachers, support staff and community members on February 26.

Buryanek will start her duties on July 1, after the retirement of Mike Pardun. Pardun is serving his 20th year in the superintendent’s position.

Buryanek is currently the PK-12 learning division administrator for the Iowa Department of Education.

But her first job was as a classroom teacher.

Buryanek grew up on a farm near Ireton, in Sioux County, Iowa, and was educated in the West Sioux Community Schools, based in Hawarden. She then got an undergraduate degree in English from the University of South Dakota at Vermillion.

Her first teaching jobs were at Remsen St. Mary's and then at Hill City, South Dakota; both were high school English teaching posts. While at Hill City she earned a master’s degree in educational administration from South Dakota State University in Brookings.

“I enjoyed learning about leadership and different theories about that and learning from other administrators, so I decided I was going to see if I enjoyed administration. I always thought I could return to the classroom if I wanted to,” she said.

Her first administrative job was as assistant high school principal in Sydney, Montana, located on the eastern side of the state. After several years there she felt she was ready for the next leadership opportunity. She was hired as the high school principal in Anaconda, Montana, which is just past Butte.

After a number of years there, Buryanek was told by her parents and her husband’s parents that the principal at her alma mater, West Sioux High School, was going to retire and hinted that she should apply for that job.

“I did. I thought there was probably someone closer to West Sioux and that area that they would hire, and I was too far away, because we did enjoy living out in the mountains in Montana. But that’s not how it worked out,” she said.

She was hired as the 6-12 principal at West Sioux.

“It was a good decision to make,” she added.

It was her first experience in working with middle school students.

While working at West Sioux, Buryanek got her superintendent endorsement through Iowa state and completed the work for her Ph.D.

“After I got my Ph.D. I thought I was ready for that next leadership challenge so applied for and was hired as the director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for the Sioux City Community School District. I worked a lot with students in K-12. It was my first central district office job,” she said.

After two years in that position, she became the associate superintendent.

An overwhelming impression Buryanek took away from her visit to Denison was pride.

“When I left, especially after the interview and on my drive home, it was the pride that just came across,” Buryanek said. “Every single group I talked to just had great pride about their accomplishments, about the schools, about working and living in Denison and Schleswig. That is something that I left with, just that feeling, just great pride in the system. I’m excited to be a part of that.”

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Buryanek was with the Sioux City Community School District for 10 years before taking a job at the Iowa Department of Education.

At the Iowa Department of Education, Buryanek is the administrator of one of the three department divisions - the preschool through 12th learning and results division. It involves public and non-public schools, everything related to the work of schools, preschool through 12th grade.

That division has seven bureaus - preschool, special education, federal programs division, food and nutrition bureau, learning and results division, school improvement bureau, and information and technology bureau.

Buryanek enjoys the job but missed education on the local level.

“In my job, I spend a lot of time in meetings, a lot of time reviewing contracts, entering into contracts and reviewing legislation, rules and policies,” she explained. “But I just got too far away from the schools.

“I enjoy administrators, teachers, students, parents and just working with all the stakeholders in a school system. I just got too far away from that in this job now,” she said.

“I know I have the ability to have an impact – there’s over half a million kids in schools in Iowa, and just thinking about that, some of the initiatives that I’ve been involved in or decisions that I make are going to have an impact on a lot of kids,” Buryanek added, “but I’m just a lot happier when I’m sitting in a room with teachers and administrators, having conversations and being involved at that level.”

However, the experience she’s gained in her state job will help her as a superintendent.

“Being able to review the legislation as it goes through the approval process and as administrative rules are written will help, and really take that information and be able to lead a school district in the interpretation and implementation of the expectations from legislation,” she explained.

Buryanek said she always enjoyed school and has an aunt that’s a teacher.

“My favorite teachers were English teachers, and it was just always an area that was my passion,” she said.

“In undergraduate school you think you know what you want to pursue but it was very soon that I realized I wanted to be a teacher,” Buryanek added. “I think it was always something I had in the back of my mind growing up.”

It was her knowledge of Mike Pardun that tipped Buryanek off about the superintendent’s position at Denison and Schleswig.

“When I heard that Mike was retiring, I was surprised because Mike and I have worked together on committees and have been involved in different meetings over the years,” she said. “Right away I looked at the job posting, and I just knew I wanted that job. I dug into the data (of the school district) on the public websites.”

She looked at the test scores and the ratings of the schools, the financial situation and financial health and did an analysis of that.

“I looked at a number of different reports pertaining to Denison and Schleswig. Both are really good school systems and they’re well respected. The student achievement is good, the financial system is really healthy, and I did not have a single hesitation,” she said.

“I’m excited to come to Denison and Schleswig and visit classrooms and see the positive things that are happening and just be able to lead and influence that next step, and to take the next steps within the systems to improve even more on student achievement, even gain more sound financial stability and take whatever steps I can to contribute to that,” she said.

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