Tanzania RPCV Jerome Skarbek named superintendent
Berrien County man named superintendent
Friday, May 24, 2002
By Susan K. Treutler CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER
A Berrien County man has been hired as the Holton school district's new superintendent.
Jerome Skarbek, 60, superintendent of Galien Township schools, will replace Mike Estes, who is retiring and moving to Ohio, where he has family. Estes has been superintendent since 1999.
Board President Daniel Eling said Skarbek, who was hired Monday, is "community-oriented and often visible in the buildings -- something our staff wanted."
Skarbek is a former classroom teacher who served in the Peace Corps in Africa.
"He will be a hands-on, in-the-building, people-person superintendent," Eling said. "The people (at Galien) had nothing but praise for him."
Skarbek and John Fazer, an elementary school principal in the Fremont district, were the finalists for the job. "Fazer shined, but he hasn't experience as a superintendent," Eling said.
Skarbek will be paid $90,000 in his first year at Holton.
He has been superintendent in Galien for seven years. His current salary there is $66,031. The K-12 district has a staff of 75 and 315 students. Holton has 131 staff members and 1,134 students.
Skarbek wasn't supposed to start his new job until July 1, but he showed up this week to attend baccalaureate, read to first- and second-graders and meet with administrators.
Thursday, he was at the elementary school at 8 a.m. to give students a presentation on Africa, complete with memorabilia of his travels there, according to school officials.
Skarbek made state news in October when he found a provision in state law that would give school districts, which had lost more than 10 percent of their enrollment because of schools of choice, state aid for the students who'd left but still lived in the district.
Prior to becoming superintendent at Galien, he was business manager for Allegan Public Schools for 10 years. He served as director of Brandywine Public Schools adult and community schools from 1971 to 1984 and taught elementary school at Brandywine from 1968 to 1971. Brandywine is in Niles.
He taught English, math and science to high-schoolers in Tanzania, East Africa, and supervised the building of elementary schools there during his four years with the Peace Corps.
He and his wife, Pat, a Hospice nurse, are searching for property in the district and plan to build a home.
