{"id":39037,"date":"2022-04-19T18:54:16","date_gmt":"2022-04-19T22:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=39037"},"modified":"2022-04-19T18:56:04","modified_gmt":"2022-04-19T22:56:04","slug":"dasd-banes-odonnell-as-new-superintendent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=39037","title":{"rendered":"DASD names O’Donnell as new Superintendent"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Robert J. O’Donnell<\/p><\/div>\n

DOWNINGTOWN \u2014 The Downingtown Area School District (DASD) Board of Directors unanimously approved the appointment of Dr. Robert O\u2019Donnell as its next superintendent of schools, Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur community asked for a strong leader, a good listener and an experienced superintendent,” said LeeAnn Wisdom, president of the DASD Board of Directors. “The board wanted to find a person of integrity, compassion and strong leadership skills. We believe we have found all of these qualities in Dr. O’Donnell.”<\/p>\n

For the last eleven years, O\u2019Donnell served as superintendent of the State College Area School District (SCASD). Under his direction, State College Area High School students have placed within the top 5% of more than 650 Pennsylvania high schools on the SATs. Annually, SCASD schools rank among the state\u2019s finest in academic performance, and students routinely receive state and national recognition in various subjects and activities. The district also excels in athletics and is annually honored as one of the nation\u2019s best communities for music education.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am grateful to the Downingtown Area School District\u2019s Board of Directors for entrusting me to lead this stellar school district and am looking forward to joining its leadership team,\u201d commented O\u2019Donnell. \u201cMy approach to leadership centers around building trusting relationships to bring people together and strengthen community ties, which enhances learning experiences for all of our students and staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell\u2019s dedication to students includes the following district accomplishments: expansion of integrated mental health services; development of a School Climate\/Inclusive Excellence Policy, including a new director of equity and inclusivity to help foster more equitable experiences for students and staff; restructured K-12 school start times, including secondary start times at 8:40 a.m.; implementing K-12 professional learning communities in support of faculty development; building three new elementary schools; and obtaining community approval of $85 million bond referendum to help fund the construction of a new $142 million State College High School campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis accomplishments speak for themselves. His career thus far has been one of stewardship and innovation, and we are very excited to welcome him and his family into our DASD community,\u201d stated Wisdom.<\/p>\n

Beyond State College Area School District, O\u2019Donnell serves as a member of the Keystone Center for Charter Change advisory board, Penn State University\u2019s Outreach and Online Education advisory board and as the chairman of the Board of Directors for the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County.<\/p>\n

Prior to coming to State College, O\u2019Donnell served as assistant superintendent in the Hempfield School District, a high school principal in the Manheim Township School District and a high school math and computer science teacher in the Warwick School District.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell received his undergraduate degrees in mathematics and secondary education from Shippensburg University and his master\u2019s degree and a doctorate in educational leadership from Lehigh University. He and his wife, Lori, have three children.<\/p>\n

The district received 22 applications for the position from a diverse candidate pool of superintendents, assistant superintendents and lifelong educators. Eight highly qualified candidates were invited for a first-round interview; three advanced to second-round interviews of those eight candidates. O\u2019Donnell was chosen for the third and final round of interviews, and the Board conducted a thorough reference and background check as part of the process.<\/p>\n

During the past two months, the Board completed rigorous interviews to determine the degree of fit between the community\u2019s criteria and the candidate’s professional experiences. The interview process included in-depth questions developed from an analysis of stakeholder priorities gathered through focus groups and a survey to parents, staff and the community at large. Submission of an entry plan and a detailed presentation to address the district\u2019s most pressing issues were also key components of the interview process.<\/p>\n

The criteria established through community engagement and the ideas brought forth by the candidates themselves lead to the selection of O’Donnell as Downingtown Area School District’s next superintendent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe high-quality learning experiences have been built over time by many wonderful educators, and I\u2019m honored to serve with the Downingtown staff, leadership team and board of directors,\u201d O\u2019Donnell adds.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell will be replacing Dr. Emilie Lonardi, who has been serving as the superintendent since July of 2017. O\u2019Donnell is expected to begin his duties as superintendent at Downingtown Area School District on July 1, 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DOWNINGTOWN \u2014 The Downingtown Area School District (DASD) Board of Directors unanimously approved the appointment of Dr. Robert O\u2019Donnell as its next superintendent of schools, Monday. \u201cOur community asked for a strong leader, a good listener and an experienced superintendent,” said LeeAnn Wisdom, president of the DASD Board of Directors. “The board wanted to find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4023,6518,13551,13430],"class_list":["post-39037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-downingtown-area-school-district","tag-featured","tag-robert-odonnell","tag-superintendent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39037"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39039,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39037\/revisions\/39039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}