Fred Susor, retired superintendent of the Penta Career Center, has been
hired as interim superintendent for the Wood County Educational Service
Center.
Susor will have his hands full as the ESC is trying to cut expenses
while still trying to provide quality services to the six local school
districts it serves.
According to two local superintendents reached this morning, the choice of Susor was the right one.
Eastwood Superintendent Brent Welker was very pleased with the selection.
“My personal feeling is that Fred is an outstanding choice,” Welker said
this morning. “As superintendent at Penta he had a reputation of being a
straight shooter.”
Otsego Superintendent James Garber agreed.
“That’s good news,” Garber said when the Sentinel informed him of
Susor’s selection. “Fred’s a good man and he’s somebody I know I can
work with.”
Welker spoke of Susor’s knowledge and quality working relationship with
the board of the ESC, its staff as well as the other superintendents,
“I would congratulate the board on an excellent choice,” Welker said.
Tim Smith, an ESC governing board member said the board was presented with five people as possible
candidates.
“We narrowed that down to two people and then selected Fred,” Smith said of the board’s selection.
Smith, who represents the ESC on the Penta Board of Education, met with Susor earlier this week to
discuss the needs of the ESC.
“We came to a conclusion that he was interested and yes, he would do the job if selected,” Smith said.

“It will be a different challenge for me,” Susor said. “But I look
forward to working with the superintendents of the districts and the
board.”
He said he is very pleased to be working with a very good organization.
The decision was made by the governing board following an executive session of the board at a special
meeting on Thursday.
Smith said the board believed the local superintendents would be
favorable about Susor’s selection which provided extra comfort on its
decision.
Susor, who retired from Penta in 2009, will begin his new role on Monday.
He will take over for Luci Gernot who retired Feb. 19, following
extensive negotiations with officials of the six local school boards
served by the ESC.
In addition to Welker and Garber, superintendents from, Elmwood, North
Baltimore, Lake and Northwood banded together in November in an effort
to negotiate better rates for services provided by the service center.
The group hired an attorney, with the possibility of pulling their
contracts from the ESC.
Through an agreement with the ESC board at the time of Gernot’s
retirement last month, the six districts will receive a refund from the
center’s unencumbered balance; the amount dispersed to each district
will be based on the district’s averaged contribution over the past five
years. The amount to be shared is $1.1 million, and will be parceled
out over the 2011-12 school year, according to Smith.