Superintendent David Schauer reflects upon 19-year career with Kyrene
By Diana Whittle
Kyrene Superintendent Dr. David Schauer, the chief executive for the high-performing school district for the past 10 years, will retire in a few months.
During a recent interview, he reflected upon the changes and challenges in the district, and what he views as his legacy.
He reminisced that he came to Kyrene during difficult financial times, when the economy in the state was headed for a sharp decline, along with rising unemployment and a drop in home values.
“This lead to less property tax collections and created a downward spiral in our budget, which resulted in program reductions,” said Dr. Schauer.
When faced with several years of budget cuts, as a result of decreasing state funding, Schauer partnered with the district’s Governing Board to minimize the effects on classrooms and student instruction. He also established all-day kindergarten, because he believes that the investment in early learning is critical for children to succeed.
As a result, when compared to other districts, Kyrene consistently scores in the top tier for the amount of money that is spent on instruction.
Fortunately, the economy is on the uptick and recent improvements in the state budget yielded a repayment of funds to the district. In turn, the Governing Board approved returning the money to schools for their immediate use.
“I feel really positive that we were able to do this, so that we can better support teachers and students,” said Dr. Schauer.
His style of management includes frequent visits to the classroom, so he can actually see the learning in progress.
“This keeps me in touch with both the staff and the students,” he explained. “I enjoy the enthusiasm for learning that I see in our classrooms.
“I’m also proud of the relationships I’ve been able to establish with our state legislators and regularly invite them to our schools and special events. They have demonstrated that they have a strong interest in education.”
With Dr. Schauer at the helm, Kyrene established a reputation as an “A” school district.
Schauer successfully navigated through other challenges during his tenure, including responding to changes in state learning standards and testing assessments; and reacting to increased competition from other educational institutions.
Kyrene’s anticipated enrollment decline has stabilized by aggressively marketing the benefits of a Kyrene education and by providing increased educational choices for families, such as more electives.
He says that one of the key achievements during his tenure is his ability to create consensus among varied stakeholders.
“Bringing groups of people with varied interests and widely different perspectives together to work on behalf of all of the children in Kyrene has been important.
“When I first began in this position, this district had adversarial relationships with key groups of employees and parents. I was able to build bridges with these groups through educating them about the work of the district and encouraging everyone to take collective responsibility for major areas, such as the impact of state funding on the budget and creating the best possible working conditions for our employees with limited resources.
He also counts creating the ‘Strategic Blueprint’, a document with measureable goals, “as the defining roadmap to guide all of our work and has been critical to inspiring our success.”
Schauer began his educational career as a third-grade teacher in Illinois, after receiving a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Illinois State University.
It was during this period that he observed that reading is “key to all learning experiences and that kids need structured pre-reading activities to get them ready for school.”
He came to Arizona in 1996 to become the Principal of Aprende Middle School, a position he held for six years. In 2002, Schauer was selected to be assistant superintendent for Instructional Services and served in that role until he was named superintendent of the Kyrene District in 2006.
He says that the best of part of being in the Kyrene community is that “the kids we serve are truly amazing.
“We have strong parental and community support for what we do and I could not ask for a better environment in which to work.”
He remains passionate about education and is weighing several directions to pursue after retirement.
