{"id":104699,"date":"2018-07-13T08:11:30","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T13:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=104699"},"modified":"2018-07-14T05:57:06","modified_gmt":"2018-07-14T10:57:06","slug":"superintendents-now-lead-schools-they-graduated-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2018\/07\/13\/superintendents-now-lead-schools-they-graduated-from\/","title":{"rendered":"Supts. lead schools they graduated from"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

While their paths have been very different, Crestview\u2019s Kathy Mollenkopf, Lincolnview\u2019s Jeff Snyder, and Vantage\u2019s Rick Turner are all back where they started: heading the school districts from which they graduated decades ago.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Coming home: Lincolnview Superintendent Jeff Snyder, Crestview Superintendent Kathy Mollenkopf, and Vantage Superintendent Rick Turner.<\/strong> Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In many ways, Mollenkopf said she never really left Crestview. Although it took her 10 years to finalize her English degree after graduating in 1976, she noted that then-Crestview superintendent Clark Fleming and high school principal Steve Keller approached her soon after earning her degree to ask whether she would be interested in coming back as a teacher.<\/p>\n

She was, and has been at Crestview ever since, spending 12 years as a teacher and the past 20 years as Elementary principal until being hired this year to become the next Crestview superintendent.<\/p>\n

Turner had always wanted to come back to Vantage after graduating from the school (and Crestview) in 1979, but it took 32 years to do so.<\/p>\n

After he left Vantage, Turner worked for seven years as a machinist for Ley Equipment in Van Wert and then inquired about a teaching job at Vantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then, you had to have seven years\u2019 experience in the field before you could teach at a vocational school,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Vantage didn\u2019t have any openings at that time, but he was told that Apollo Career Center in Lima did. He applied there and then spent the next 32 years at Apollo, ending up as Adult Education director before the Vantage superintendent\u2019s job opened up last year.<\/p>\n

Turner said that, after three decades, he was happy in his career at Apollo, but the opportunity to be Vantage superintendent was a lure he couldn\u2019t resist.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is probably the only opportunity that would have caused me to leave (Apollo) after 32 years,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

For Snyder, who graduated last, but has been a superintendent the longest, teaching wasn\u2019t even his first choice of a career.<\/p>\n

After graduating from Lincolnview in 1988, Snyder went on to earn a degree in education and sports medicine from the University of Toledo and later a master\u2019s in sports medicine from Ohio University. His first job was not in teaching, but as a trainer and director of sports medicine internships at Defiance College. He later worked on, but didn\u2019t complete, a doctorate in higher education, thinking he would eventually become a college dean down the road.<\/p>\n

It was Snyder’s father, Ralph, who was also his high school principal, who suggested he might want to look at being a public education administrator, noting it would be a better opportunity to keep his family in Ohio, where he wanted to stay.<\/p>\n

Snyder agreed, and later became a principal at Edgerton Local Schools and then Otsego Local Schools before being hired six years ago as Lincolnview superintendent.<\/p>\n

All three have also had differing impacts on the schools from which they graduated.<\/p>\n

Mollenkopf, as a Crestview administrator for more than two decades, has had a significant impact on the district during that time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been able to help shape, a little bit, the direction the district has taken over the last 20 years,\u201d Mollenkopf noted, \u201cand I have also been able to learn from several high quality superintendents that preceded me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Turner and Snyder said they returned to districts that had changed very much from when they were students there, but that the changes, in most cases, were very positive.<\/p>\n

Snyder, in particular, said he was pleased to see the changes that nearly two decades had made at Lincolnview.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people before me did such an incredible job that I have had 5\u00bd years of pure enjoyment (as superintendent),\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

All three were in agreement that they all looked at their positions as ways to thank the communities that raised them and made them what they are today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great thing about this is that it\u2019s a tremendous opportunity to give back,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n

All three superintendents also noted that it was the children of the community that drew them to their positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy filter has always been kids, and the students, and what we want for them,\u201d Mollenkopf said of her career. Both Snyder and Turner agreed that kids were the major focus of their efforts as well.<\/p>\n

Things have changed, though, over the decades. Where local schools, particularly Lincolnview and Crestview as cross-county rivals, largely went their own way, today\u2019s schools find collaboration and partnerships work best in meeting the challenges of the 21st century.<\/p>\n

As an example, all three spoke of the Career Education Opportunities (CEO) program started at Van Wert City Schools and now being offered to Crestview and Lincolnview as one example of a partnership the schools hope will provide more career choices for students right here in the community.<\/p>\n

Vantage and VWCS have also been collaborating for years on Van Wert\u2019s Project Lead the Way pre-engineering and biomedical programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spend about every day talking to my colleagues at the other county schools,\u201d Snyder said, adding that the collaboration between schools is critical to each school district\u2019s future success.<\/p>\n

All three also are members of a county business advisory council, which also includes Van Wert City Schools.<\/p>\n

As schools face new financial and other challenges, including declining student populations, Turner, Mollenkopf, and Snyder all said they see collaboration not only continuing, but growing as well.<\/p>\n

While each school will no doubt maintain its own unique identity and culture in the coming years, as well as local control, each superintendent sees some combining of classroom programs between the districts as likely down the road. All three, though, view that collaboration as positive for their students\u2019 future growth and education — something they all say is their schools\u2019 main goal.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, all are enjoying being at the school, and in the community, that nurtured and educated them. And all three hope that at least some of their students will do the same after they graduate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is to have our graduates love their experience and want to come back,\u201d Snyder said, with all three superintendents agreeing that having students return is a win-win situation for local communities — especially today with a declining county population and so many opportunities available locally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor While their paths have been very different, Crestview\u2019s Kathy Mollenkopf, Lincolnview\u2019s Jeff Snyder, and Vantage\u2019s Rick Turner are all back where they started: heading the school districts from which they graduated decades ago. In many ways, Mollenkopf said she never really left Crestview. Although it took her 10 years to finalize her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-01 14:37:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}