Pledging to continue the reputation of success as a “destination district,” a school administrator from Minnesota will become Edmond Public Schools’ next superintendent.
The Edmond Board of Education voted unanimously Monday morning to hire Josh Delich as the next chief executive to lead the district of 25,700 students. On July 1, he will succeed Angela Mills Grunewald, who is soon retiring after four years as superintendent.
“When you drive around here, you can see the greatness that’s happening here, and I want to be a part of that excellence and continue that,” Delich told reporters after the school board meeting.
Edmond Board of Education member Marcus Jones takes his seat before a meeting Monday at the Edmond Public Schools administration center. The board voted to hire Josh Delich to succeed Angela Mills Grunewald as the superintendent of Edmond Public Schools (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
The board also voted to contract with Delich on a “daily rate basis” as he visits and consults with the administration as the incoming superintendent. He formally takes office on July 1, but he will begin preparing for the transition right away by traveling back and forth from Minnesota, he said.
Edmond schools didn’t immediately provide details of his contract and salary. Grunewald earns a base salary of $220,000 and $26,700 in additional benefits and compensation.
Delich is an associate superintendent for high schools at the largest district in Minnesota, Anoka-Hennepin Schools north of Minneapolis. The Minnesota district of 38,000 students is known, like Edmond, for academic performance above the state average.
Edmond Board President Courtney Hobgood said Delich delivers not only experience but a “strong heart” for education.
“He brings passion for continuing the forward progress in Edmond and building on our history of success,” Hobgood said after the meeting.
Josh Delich speaks to news reporters after the Edmond Board of Education hired him as the next superintendent of Edmond Public Schools on Monday at the district’s administration center. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
Delich said he will bring “external ideas” to Edmond, Oklahoma’s fourth largest district, but first wants to “listen, learn (and) lead to better understand what’s going on before I start infusing some of the ideas or experiences I have into the system.”
He said he intends to examine ways to improve four key areas: student achievement and outcomes, staff and teacher performance, operational efficiency and effectiveness, and relations with the Edmond community.
Delich said he also hopes to connect with Edmond’s state lawmakers and state Superintendent Ryan Walters.
The relationship between Edmond district leaders and Walters at times has been strained. The district sued the Oklahoma State Department of Education after Walters’ administration tried to order the removal of “The Kite Runner” and “The Glass Castle” from Edmond’s high school libraries.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in Edmond’s favor, deciding local school officials rather than the state decide what books to keep on school library shelves.
“I look forward to meeting Ryan Walters and spending some time, get to know the individual, get to know him, also for him to get to know me and then figure out where to where can we align and where can we best keep moving things forward,” Delich said. “Because I know that if you’re in the world of education, it’s about students and how do we develop and create great opportunities for students.”
Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Delich was adopted and raised in Minnesota. He has 21 years of experience as an educator in his home state and in Texas. He attended Concordia University, St. Paul and then the University of Texas at Arlington for his master’s degree in education. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of North Texas.
Before joining Anoka-Hennepin Schools, Delich was an assistant superintendent at St. Paul Public Schools, the second-largest district in Minnesota.
His wife, Desirae, and their three daughters will relocate with him to Edmond.
Delich said he and his wife had visited Oklahoma before and “could see ourselves someday being here.”
“The amount of welcoming, the genuine sense of belonging that one can get when they get here to Oklahoma is amazing,” he said. “This is a gem of a state.”
This article appears in Oklahoma News Partners.