T-R PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER Newly hired GMG Superintendent Chris Petersen smiles while standing just outside the Green Mountain Elementary main office on March 20, his first day with the district. In the fall, GMG and Baxter will share Petersen’s services.

GREEN MOUNTAIN — The Green Mountain-Garwin (GMG) Community School District is hoping the third time’s a charm when it comes to new superintendents this school year.

On March 18, Kimballton native Chris Petersen, 42, was officially hired to fill the position, replacing Interim Superintendent Gary Sinclair who was hired in February to replace the district’s previous interim superintendent, Joel Pedersen.

Pedersen, the chief administrator at Central Rivers AEA, voluntarily led the district in the wake of former Superintendent Kym Stein taking medical leave last December before officially resigning in February.

During a special meeting on March 7, the school board approved a motion to enter into a superintendent sharing agreement with Baxter Community School District beginning next year while also hiring Petersen for the remainder of this current school year.

It’s safe to say it’s been a long three months for the small, rural public school district, which Petersen himself acknowledged on March 20 while speaking with the newspaper on his first day.

“This is my very first day. The first day is always a little overwhelming. My goal here was to get my face in front of as many staff members as possible,” Petersen said while standing in the hallway just outside the district offices at Green Mountain Elementary.

When asked what attracted him to the GMG position, he admitted that needing to find a sharing partner for Baxter was part of the calculation, but he also feels at home in smaller districts like GMG.

“I didn’t know a whole lot about [GMG]. Getting to talk to Gary Sinclair is what did it for me and the great things he had to say about [the district]. I’m a very big rural public school advocate. … I think it’s important to note, also, my last 15 years in education, that’s what I’ve known and been a part of – [shared superintendents],” Petersen said.

Petersen comes by his affinity for rural public schools honestly, hailing from the storied Petersen teaching/coaching clan of the Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton Community School District where many of his relatives – including his father, the beloved but now retired head baseball/girls basketball/junior high football coach Tony Petersen – still teach.

“My entire family has been in education,” he said.

After graduating high school from what was then Elk Horn-Kimballton, Petersen earned his teaching degree in social science education in 2004 from Buena Vista University (BVU) before later earning a Master’s degree in educational administration from UNI, followed by his superintendent endorsement from Wayne State College.

Close to a year ago, Petersen and his wife Chloe – a Gilman native who is currently pregnant with their fourth child due in May – relocated to the Des Moines area to be closer to family. Prior to the move, Petersen spent the previous 11 years working for two small school districts where he donned plenty of different hats.

His most recent appointment was as the PK-12 principal at Ar-We-Va (Community School District in west central Iowa for almost five years, serving the communities of Arcadia, Westside, and Vail in Crawford and Carroll counties.

While at Ar-We-Va, he also worked as transportation director, director of buildings and grounds, curriculum director, special education director, and head varsity football coach – a role in which he took teams twice to within one game of the Dome.

Before that, Petersen worked for Paton-Churdan Community School District for six years as both a high school social studies teacher and the district’s activities director.

Since leaving Ar-We-Va at the end of the 2022-23 school year and moving to Ankeny, Petersen has worked for SitelogIQ as an educational consultant with the ultimate goal, he said, of getting back into public schools.

Petersen said at this point the plan is for him to spend one day per week at GMG through the end of the school year and then “maybe two days per week” at both GMG and Baxter next school year.

“We’ll iron out the sharing details soon for next year,” he said.

He also said that Sinclair will continue assisting the school board during the superintendent transition.Even in the face of so much upheaval this past school year, Petersen sees a bright future for GMG. Asked if he might consider dusting off his coaching credentials anytime soon for either school district, Petersen grinned widely before shaking his head ‘no’ and chuckling.

“I got out of coaching,” he said.

Both Petersen and Sinclair plan to attend the April 8 school board meeting, which is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. at the secondary building in Garwin.