in f o c u s by Cameron Carr Photos courtesy of Dublin City Schools
New School, Same Difference
New superintendent keeps up the Dublin Difference
In July, Dr. John Marschhausen and his family relocated to their sixth home – a necessary part of the job for Dublin City Schools’ new superintendent. “I feel it’s incredibly important as the superintendent to be a part of the community,” he says. “That’s critical in being able to lead the district.” Marschhausen’s new position in Dublin is part of a long and successful career in educational administration and leadership and builds on 16 years of experience as a superintendent. He took his first superintendent job at East Knox Local Schools in Howard, Ohio, overseeing roughly 1,000 students. He continued to serve a student population of nearly 5,000 for Loveland City Schools 16 • October/November 2021
outside of Cincinnati before spending the subsequent eight years in the Hilliard City School District. Both Hilliard’s and Dublin’s school districts are home to more than 15,000 students. Those past experiences have given Marschhausen an understanding of how to manage the dynamics of a large educational organization, preparing him for his new job in Dublin. “Ultimately, it’s not what I do as superintendent, it’s how I lead our team and how our team allows the teachers to teach,” he says. “The role of any school administrator is to provide classroom teachers with the most opportunities to provide learning experiences for kids. The magic happens in our classrooms.” Key to that success and to the continued excellence of Dublin City Schools, Marschhausen says, is communication.
“Even though people may not always agree, I want them to know why and how decisions were made,” he says. “I think you build trust with smart people, who may not always agree, if they understand that there is a process and they know how decisions were made.” While the thought of taking on the rapidly growing district looking to emphasize its focus on diversity, equity and inclusion while also counteracting the adverse effects of a continuing COVID-19 pandemic may cause some to balk, Marschhausen is taking the challenge head on. “We’ve been all kind of knocked off course because of COVID,” he says. “We need to set measurable academic goals with strategies to reach those goals, with ways to monitor our progress, and then we need to be able to reflect on that at the end of this year to say, ‘Where can we improve?’ because the world in which we live isn’t stopping for COVID. The job market isn’t stopping. College applications are still being accepted.” He notes the particular challenges of students who may have missed in-person educational experiences related to literacy or basic math fluency. Others, he says, may have spent their first year in a new school learning entirely from home and may need support situating alongside peers already familiar with the environment. “It’s clear we have some learning losses, and it’s not every kid,” he says. “Our response to those losses has to be personal and it has to be at the student level.” Growing District Marschhausen isn’t the only new face on the block. Also in its first year is Eversole www.dublinlifemagazine.com
