Madison Superintendent Schaefer Bails on Contract Mid-Year

It feels like the Madison Central School Board gave us a bit of a misdirection play with their agenda for last night's meeting. The agenda specified that the board would discuss football coach Tom Milne's resignation (remember, fans, as Milne would say, "Winning isn't frickin' everything!"). The local press front-paged that resignation, as if the position of telling kids how to throw and hit were one of the biggest jbos in town.

But down at the bottom of the agenda, way below mention of Milne's resignation and middle school roof bids and approval of appropriations for the school's new RV, was line 23: "Presentation of a resignation." No name, no details as with Milne's announcement. Who was it?

The boss, superintendent Vince Schaefer. For the second time in a row, we've lost a superintendent after just a couple years. A mid-year resignation of a contracted school employee usually raises eyebrows, but Schaefer tells KJAM that such changes in administration are becoming more common. And it doesn't sound like there are any shenanigans surrounding Schaefer's decision to quit. He's just retiring: "It's time for me to activate my benefits. We'll see what the future brings," the soon-to-be ex-super tells KJAM.

The announcement appears to have caught the board by surprise: members discussed the resignation in executive session for an hour and twenty minutes before coming out to announce and vote. The acceptance of Schaefer's resignation wasn't unanimous: Mark Hawkes and Paul Weist voted to keep Schaefer on the job.

But Schaefer is out, effective December 31. Some new guy or gal will get the pleasure of building a budget on whatever pittance comes from Pierre in 2010... not to mention dealing with the public relations fiasco of helping Madison lose the Mundt Debate Tournament to Harrisburg.

On the bright side, there's one more job opening in Madison. The school board should be advertising the position on its website shortly. Polish your shoes and your résumés!