Matt Leeman has education in his blood. His parents were each teachers, so naturally, Leeman would follow in their footsteps. After spending time teaching many grades and holding different administrative positions with various school districts in eastern Iowa, Leeman will now be the superintendent of the Mount Vernon School District.
Leeman grew up in Postville, a small town in Northeast Iowa. He admired the small-town community and felt the need to go back to that lifestyle. “I have two little boys,” said Leeman, “Mount Vernon is half the size [as CCA] so there is just more opportunities for the kids. The fine arts, academics, and athletics; all those things are wonderful here.”
Leeman is a graduate of Northern Iowa and has various roles in school districts – kindergarten, first-grade, and fourth-grade teacher, then, Dean of Students, principal at elementary, middle, and high school. Before taking the job as superintendent at Mount Vernon, Leeman worked in the Cleer Creek Amana school district as the associate superintendent.
Leeman started his new job on July 1 of this year. He has had a lot to get done and more to learn about the community and school district.
“First and foremost, I just need to get to building relationships with everybody,” Leeman said. “I serve the staff, I serve the kids, I serve the families, I serve the community. So being able to be visible and be out there and learn names, that will be my first priority.”
He does not want to come into the new job and change everything. Leeman explained he wanted to step back and assess what is working and what is not and take action from there.
“I’ll do that through working with our staff and the feedback from staff and community members and get the lay of the land,” Leeman said.
The district finances are an issue that Leeman says he needs to focus on. Last spring, the district changed its insurance plan to make sure they are competitive with surrounding districts. Leeman also found a downward trend in the general budget. He will look to slow down this trend and even reverse it.
Leeman also noticed Mount Vernon has a declining residential population, but a very large open-enrollment population. He wants to find a way to balance the residential population and maintain the open-enrollment population. That can help put money back into the district.
“That goes back to the partnership with the city,” Leeman said. “How much affordable housing are we creating? How many opportunities are we creating for families to move here? That benefits the city but also benefits the school.”
This job with Mount Vernon offers Leeman a more intimate relationship with the community than his past job with CCA.
“I’m going from about 3,100 students to about 1,450,” Leeman said. “There’s less staff, so you get to know more people, more quickly.”
An added benefit of a smaller school is a smaller campus. Especially in the case of Mount Vernon because all the schools are on one walkable campus.
“I love the fact that all of our buildings are on just one big campus,” Leeman said. “I think just having everything on one campus makes for stronger ties and stronger relationships.”
Leeman plans to be around all of the buildings and staff during the first week of school coming up. He wants to meet as many people as he can and help out wherever is needed. Once school gets underway, he will finalize the move to Mount Vernon by moving into a house with his family in the town.
“This year it’s just settling in, getting to know people and the place that I’m leading,” he said.
Leeman looks forward to beginning this new chapter of his career.
“The opportunity to lead this district and be a part of this community, that’s not lost upon me,” Leeman said. “I’m really excited I was chosen for this opportunity and look forward to serving people and hoping I can do the best job possible.”