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The North Branch School Board is in the market for a new superintendent. Dr. Robert Stepaniak submitted notice November 18 that he plans to retire at the end of this school year.

Stepaniak said he decided to announce his retirement now so the School Board has sufficient time to fine-tune a process to select a new superintendent.

“I think it is imperative in the current market and pool of candidates for the school board to get started searching for my successor as soon as possible,” he mentioned.

Stepaniak has been superintendent in North Branch Dist. 138 for approximately six years.

Before coming to North Branch he was a high school principal in the New Prague Dist. and New Prague Schools superintendent. “I think it’s time to try something new outside of education,” Stepaniak observed. He said, “It’s been a good 30-plus years in education but it is time for me to focus on being a husband, father and grandfather.”

His contract expires June 30, 2005.

“We should all feel good about the many talented people who will continue to work for our schools,” Stepaniak said, when speaking of the current state of school funding and what lies ahead. North Branch voters rejected an excess levy ballot question November 2, that would have increased revenues to the North Branch district by a couple of million dollars annually over five years.

“The challenges will always be there for our schools and I will miss facing them with you, however it is my time to move on in my life.”

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