How they will build trust within the district was asked of all three finalists for Bowling Green City Schools superintendent candidates.

‘It’s not easy. It takes time,” said Ted Haselman. “You have to be present. You have to be available. You have to listen.

“Then you have to do what you say.”

Haselman

Haselman has served as superintendent at Pike-Delta-York Local Schools since 2015 and was the first to speak at Wednesday’s community forum where the finalists were introduced.

He compared what he walked into at Pike-Delta-York to what he anticipates in Bowling Green.

Haselman said when he started at the Fulton County school, he faced challenges of the community not trusting the leadership.

“The feeling now within our community is totally different,” he said. “If we say we’re going to do something, you bet we’re going to do it.”

Bruce Otley said he would meet people half way.

“I can’t do anything about what happened in the past,” said Otley, who has been director of operations at Liberty-Benton Local Schools since 2019.

Otley is a 1990 graduate of Bowling Green High School.

He said he will bring honesty, transparency and integrity to the role of BGCS superintendent.

“If you do those things, it’s pretty easy to foster relationships and build trust,” he said.

Otley

Kim (Hartman) Brueck said it will be imperative for her as superintendent to reach out and have conversations, and to learn the things that are dividing the community from the perspective of every person she comes in contact with.

She would share that information with the school board and administrative team and try to make sense of the negative issues.

Brueck, who is is a 1986 BGHS graduate, has been the director of human resources with Green Local Schools in Wayne County for nearly 10 years.

Difficult conversations need to take place “to understand and move forward,” she said. “It will not happen overnight. But if we want to return to the greatness and the pride that I experienced as a child growing up in this community, we have to have those difficult conversations … and we have to be patient and caring toward each other.”

Brueck

Each candidate was asked about experience with facilities.

New buildings have not been needed at Pike-Delta-York during Haselman’s tenure with the district.

The district did establish a capital improvement plan six years ago, he said, to allow the district to plan the expenditures for parking lots, roofs and mechanicals.

As director of operations at Liberty-Benton Local Schools, Otley oversees the facilities, transportation, health and safety, and security.

He has been the leader on the district’s latest facilities construction project.

Liberty-Benton is getting ready to move into a new PK-8 building, and he attended weekly construction update meetings. Otley has worked with state facilities people, the site superintendent, the engineers and architects.

The district also has placed field turf on the football field and baseball diamond and has built an indoor fieldhouse.

“What folks don’t understand is how expensive it is to operate old buildings,” Otley said.

It is generally more cost effective to build new rather than maintain old buildings, he said.

Liberty-Benton’s oldest building is 100 years old and while the terrazzo floors still look fabulous, nothing else does, Otley said.

Brueck said her district just paid off the debt incurred when a new grades 1-3 building was constructed and added on to the high school in 2006.

It costs a “crazy” amount of money to operate an old, outdated building, she said.

They are consolidating from five school buildings to four, Brueck said.

“I’m not saying that that is a solution for Bowling Green. What I am saying is we need to talk about it,” she said.

It has taken time to ask the Green schools community to support two new schools, but they are doing their due diligence, using state money as well as local investments and other funding opportunities, Brueck said.

She attended Ridge Elementary. Watching that school come down was hard, but it was the right thing to do, Brueck said.

Each of the candidates also spoke on financial knowledge and leadership styles.

Haselman said any student who wants an administrative or treasurer’s license from the University of Findlay, where he is an adjunct professor, has to take his school finance course.

“I know school finance very, very well,” he said.

The concept is simple: you can’t spend more than you bring in, Haselman said.

He said he translates the content of the course into his day-to-day operations and spoke at length about the concerns with funding bills now going through the Ohio House.

Haselman said while he has been at Pike-Delta-York, they have passed two renewal levies and an income tax, on a second attempt.

As for his working relationship with the school board, faculty and staff, he said it’s about respect.

“We’re in this together. We’re here to make Bowling Green City Schools the best school district it can be,” Haselman said.

Community member Bud Henschen said that very few people know the financial situation of Bowling Green schools.

“There are no positives to keeping it to yourself,” Haselman said. “We should definitely provide to the community what our school finances look like.”

He said he has reviewed BG’s five-year forecast and there are some challenges.

Haselman said there are some people who won’t change their mind about passing levies. Time is valuable and time is better spent trying to convince people with an open mind to vote yes, he said, and then get them to the polls.

Haselman said his leadership style is to “allow your people to work; holding them accountable and then making sure that everyone follows through on what they’re supposed to be doing.”

He said he could stay at Pike-Delta-York – he was just given a five-year contract extension.

“I’ll take those challenges on head on,” Haselman said about the Bowling Green job.

Otley said he wanted the position of superintendent because he enjoys a good challenge and “Bowling Green is my home.”

While Haselman and Brueck stood at the front of the audience, Otley walked the room as he answered questions.

Community member Judy Ennis asked Otley about his background in school finance.

He said he manages the requisitions and purchase orders for Liberty-Benton, and he pays all the bills.

After the event, Ennis she is more comfortable with someone who has been or is currently a superintendent.

“I think there are too many issues that need someone with that experienced background,” she said. “We’re not in a position to be a training ground for someone who wants to be superintendent.”

Richard Strow asked Otley how he would encourage the rural community to work with the district.

Otley said is boils down to relationships, being visible and understanding all constituents, and that the agricultural community is important.

“When you stop communicating with one another, that is not a good thing,” he said.

“Relationships take time,” he said.

Community member Steve Bateson wanted to know how Otley would handle the challenge of retaining teachers.

“Teachers have never had a more difficult job than they have right now,” Otley said.

Teachers need to feel the support of their administrators and that the work they are doing is valued, he said.

Otley said he has the diverse skill set that matches the needs in Bowling Green and no one will work harder than he would.

“It’s more than a job for me,” he said. “The community needs someone who is a native son, someone who understands the unique qualities Bowling Green has.

“I want to bring the skills that I’ve acquired back home and build a better BG,” Otley said. “I’m the right man at the right time for this particular challenge,” he said.

Brueck said she returns every year to Bowling Green State University, which is her alma mater, to recruit teachers.

“When I read about what Bowling Green is going through right now, I realized that maybe it was time for me to come home. That maybe it was time for me to use the experiences that I have developed, that I have experienced, that I have been part of, to come home and help rebuild the pride in this community that I still carry with me every single day,” Brueck said.

Brueck said the most important thing as a superintendent is to be a builder, a communicator and a teacher.

“I think you can lead and teach at the same time,” she said. “The best leaders in education were probably the best teachers.”

Brueck said leadership is knowing the difference between resources and assets.

Teachers and staff members are not resources, they are assets for children and to the organization and the community, she said.

She supports open and honest lines of communication.

“You cannot heal a community if you’re not part of the community,” Brueck said.

In order to get a levy passed, Green Local Schools recruited a small army that fanned out around the community. They learned that only 25% of parents were registered to vote.

They leveraged social media to tell their story, Brueck said.

In answer to a question by former BGHS band director Tom Headley, she said “the arts are crucial to the success of almost every child.”

Brueck said while she was never in band, she did have choir classes with the late Jim Brown.

She played tennis for the Bobcats and held up a tennis polo as well as the “BG” and “86” taken from her varsity jacket.

She said the arts and sports fill a need for children who may not be the smartest kids, but involvement makes them smarter.

“I am ready, it’s time to come home and give back to the place that made me who I am,” Brueck said.

All three candidates have three children; after next month, only Brueck still has one in school.

In January, BGCS Superintendent Francis Scruci announced his July 31 retirement.

More about the candidates

Three candidates for Bowling Green City Schools superintendent introduced themselves to the community Thursday.

Bowling Green native Kim (Hartman) Brueck has been the director of human resources with Green Local Schools in Wayne County for nearly 10 years. Previously with the district she served as director of technology and secondary education for six years, director of learning and teaching for four years and instructional coach for technology integration for eight years.

She was a high school French and English teacher at Cuyahoga Falls City Schools for 11 years.

Brueck has earned two master’s degrees in education. One is in educational leadership from the University of Akron and one in curriculum and instruction from Kent State University. She earned her Bachelor of Science in education from BGSU in 1990.

She is a 1986 graduate of Bowling Green High School.

Ted Haselman has served as superintendent at Pike-Delta-York Local Schools since 2015.

He formerly served as a middle school principal in Swanton and a teacher in Perrysburg.

He is an adjunct professor at the University of Findlay, where he has taught superintendent and doctorate level courses since 2020.

He holds a Doctor of Education from the University of Findlay and a master’s degree in education from Marygrove College in Detroit. He received his bachelor’s degree in business education from the University of Toledo in 1997.

Haselman was a finalist earlier this year for the position of superintendent at Findlay City Schools.

Bruce Otley, also a Bowling Green native, has been director of operations at Liberty-Benton Local Schools since July 2019. Before that, he served as principal at Liberty-Benton Middle School for 13 years, at Glenwood Middle Schools in Findlay for one year and at Greenville Junior High School for three years.

He received a master’s degree in education from the University of Dayton and a Bachelor of Science in education from Bowling Green State University in 1995.

Otley is a 1990 graduate of BGHS.