Elizabeth – Rod Blunck is the state’s superintendent of the year because his leadership extended beyond the schoolhouse doors into a community roiled by scandal, state education leaders said this week.
When he took over the 2,800-student Elizabeth School District in July 2003, the previous superintendent and financial officer had been charged with 27 counts of embezzlement, fraud, forgery and related crimes. They were later convicted.
An audit showed a budget shortfall of $2.25 million, and residents mounted a recall campaign for some school board members, who conceded they had been too trusting.
As Blunck balanced the budget, he stressed individual teaching over broad curriculum. Test scores rose, morale in the classrooms rebounded, and acrimony in the community ebbed, officials said.
“He straightened out a lot of financial problems, and everything else flowed from there,” said Elizabeth school board president Bart Christiansen. “He has the district headed in the right direction again.”
An audience of dozens at a school board meeting Wednesday night gave Blunck two standing ovations as state education leaders praised his leadership. He deflected the accolades, talking only about the work and sacrifices of the district’s employees to overcome the school system’s troubled past.
“I’d like to tell the community that this wouldn’t have been possible without 400 employees who stuck together, rolled up their sleeves and said, ‘How can we be part of the solution?”‘
Blunck was the right person to restore the school system’s pride and credibility after the scandal, said John Hefty, executive director of the Colorado Association of School Executives, an organization of more than 2,000 school administrators that presents the annual award.
“He’s regarded as an outstanding leader throughout the state,” Hefty said.
Jeff Durbin, the superintendent of the Otis School District who served on the selection committee, said Blunck is a role model as a person, an educator and an administrator.
He “is one of the reasons I do some of the things I do,” Durbin said.
Blunck, 46, came to the district after serving as assistant superintendent of business and information services for the Adams 12 district in Northglenn.
Hefty and Durbin said he will be a strong candidate for the national school award next year, an honor that was won this year by Monte Moses of the Cherry Creek School District.
Last year, state Treasurer Mike Coffman gave the school district a special statewide award for financial management. He cited Blunck’s programs that included regularly assessing the school’s financial dealings and keeping a close watch on employee turnover. Blunck keeps school board members and the public apprised of all spending.
“We have a saying around here,” Blunck said. “Trust, but validate.”
Staff writer Joey Bunch can be reached at 303-820-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com.
