Muncie schools CEO Lee Ann Kwiatkowski to retire in June; Chuck Reynolds will take helm

MUNCIE, Ind. — The woman who pioneered the remaking of Muncie Community Schools, in partnership with its school board and Ball State University, is leaving the school district she rescued.

Lee Ann Kwiatkowski, Muncie's director of public education and CEO, is retiring as the top executive of public school system at the end of this school year.

Associate Superintendent Chuck Reynolds, a longtime district administrator, will succeed her when she officially leaves June 30.

The school board unanimously voted Tuesday to make Reynolds the new top executive for the school district. He is a Muncie native and a Southside High School graduate, who was once band director for Southside and oversaw five first-place finishes at the Indiana State Fair band contest for the Rebels.

“This decision was incredibly difficult for me,” Kwiatkowski said. “I have grown to love the people of Muncie, and I’m very proud of all we’ve accomplished at Muncie Community Schools in the last five years, but my family is ready for me to be located closer to them.”

Kwiatkowski has three children and four young grandchildren in the Indianapolis area, and according to a press release from the school, she plans to spend much more time with all of them while also beginning a new position as vice president of Klipsch Educators College and Innovation in K-12 Education at Marian University.

"She has given more than she has taken every step of the way," school board President Jim Williams said as he announced Kwiatkowski's decision to leave.

Kwiatkowski agreed, after being asked by the board, to help with the transition.

“I’m especially happy that the school board has asked me to remain as an advisor to the district so I can assist Chuck as he transitions to the CEO position. He’s going to do a fantastic job," Kwiatkowski said in the press release.

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Known across the community as "Dr. K," Kwiatkowski was hired by the school board in July 2019 in the months following the Indiana General Assembly handing control of the public school system over to BSU. MCS was in a deep financial crisis with poor academic test scores. Enrollment issues followed. In 2018 more than 100 students expected to graduate chose to leave the school without diplomas.

Kwiatkowski said the school system is back on its feet financially and noted the starting teacher salary today is $51,000 annually, compared with $36,000 when she arrived in Muncie, and she also said the school district was $9 million in the red in 2019, and today it is $33 million in the black.

"Dr. K's leadership and service was truly extraordinary," Ball State President Geoffrey S. Mearns said. "She built strong relationships and established collective creditability in the community."

Mearns said many in the community were understandably concerned about what the novel arrangement between the university and the public schools would mean for their children and families. She overcame all that and built trust with Muncie.

Kwiatkowski said that she frequently meets with Mearns to discuss the issues in the schools. She was serving as am education advisor to Gov. Eric Holcomb when she took the job at Muncie Community Schools.

The university president said Reynolds will be a great replacement because of his history and knowledge of Muncie, and he has had the opportunity to work closely with Kwiatkowski in recent years.

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During the school board meeting, Williams said the school district is now financially stable, enrollment is growing and "academically we are moving in the right direction."

Kwiatkowski gave much of the credit to the people in Muncie, saying that she has never seen a community be as supportive of its schools as Muncie has been.

Reynolds, who began his career in Grant County at Eastbrook Community Schools in 1998 came to Muncie schools in 2000 and served in administrative roles in addition to his time as band director at Southside.

In 2005, he left the Muncie schools to take a position in Richmond Community Schools. He was brought back to Muncie as an administrator after the partnership with Ball State was established but before Kwiatkowski came on board.

Reynolds, who continued to live in Muncie after taking the job in Richmond, said he was surprised when he returned to Muncie schools and saw that so many of the teachers he had work with were gone.

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He said the unique partnership with Ball State has been tremendously successful and enrollment is growing and elementary schools in Muncie are full. While academics have improved, there is still more improvement to be made.

Working next to Kwiatkowski, Reynolds appeared to be the natural choice to follow her into the top spot. Williams told his fellow school board members Tuesday that it was time enact the "succession plan."

But "Dr. K" said she will still make herself available to help.

"There is a purple part of my heart now that will always be purple," she said.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Change in leadership coming to Muncie schools this summer