New Superintendent Settling In At Fremont-Mills

TABOR - As principal in the Riverside School District, David Gute could always rely on his boss for questions.
Now, Gute is the boss.

Gute was tapped as superintendent for both the Fremont-Mills and Stanton Community School Districts last spring. Six months into the job and the Modale native is busily settling into his first tenure as a superintendent  - meeting a lot of new faces, remembering a lot of new names and finding his way around two buildings.

“If I was unsure on something as a principal, I’d call my boss and send it up to the superintendent,” he said. “You’re the last line now. You’re the one that has to make the decisions now.

“But having experienced administrators really helps; all of my administrators have been on the job at least six years. So there’s not a whole lot of things they haven’t dealt with. You just have to make the best decisions you can and hopefully it’s the best decision with the kids in mind.”

When Christopher Herrick retired this summer after nearly two decades, he left big shoes to fill. And a lot of catching up for Gute to do.

“I’m still developing relationships with my administrators, new teachers and students,” he said. “It takes a little time to learn your role.”

With two different districts separated by 40 miles, with different protocols and responsibilities at each, and each building being brand new to Gute, he admits it’s taken some time to get his feet wet.

“The learning curve might be taking a little bit longer than someone who was at one district and knew it very well and then took on another district like Dr. Herrick did,” he said. “It’s been challenging. I’ve been telling people I’ve probably talked to and seen a 1,000 new people the last six months so trying to remember names is probably my biggest challenge.”

Since the summer, Gute’s been splitting his time daily between the two districts – one day at Tabor, one day at Stanton. If the need is there, he will be in the same place two days in a row, but prefers to not split the day due to the 45-minute drive time between Tabor and Stanton. He makes it a point to attend at least one sporting event at each district every week. When the Knights and Vikings clash, as they often do being Corner Conference rivals, he spends one half among one team’s fans then switches at halftime.

“For bosses day, the office staff gave me a shirt with both school’s on it,” he said. “I have not broken it out yet, but we’ll see how it goes. It’s great to be able to see them both on the same night.”

Much of Gute’s work in Tabor this first year has focused on putting the final touches on the $6 million facilities improvements unveiled last fall. The early childhood development center is up and running and a 350-seat auditorium hosted its first packed-house events in November, but work still remains on the project that began in November of 2017.

“I’m happy with where we’re at but on the other side, it’s something that’s still not completely finished,” Gute said.

“We’re getting down to some of the finer details. Getting that done as soon as possible would be ideal. There’s lots of things we want to get done but we’re been focusing on cleaning things up.”

“Punchlist” items, such as fence gates, electronic key access and generally small, but crucial work by contractors remains.

“It’s little things,” he said. “The building, the additions, they’re beautiful and working for our needs but there’s lingering things.”

School construction projects are nothing new for Gute. Prior to taking over as superintendent he was a middle and high school principal in the Riverside School District for nine years. Riverside opened a brand new, $22 million 7th-12th grade building in 2016.

“It’s very similar to what we went through at Riverside,” he said. “I’ve been through this before.”
Community reaction to both the early childhood center and the auditorium, despite some seat shortages for the holiday concert last month, have been very positive, he said.

“The early childhood center, Dr. Herrick had a vision for that, with the daycare and getting kids in early for pre-kindergarten through 12 experience at Fremont-Mills,” he said. “Both projects on each end of the building we’re done right and it’s taken a while, but both are very, very nice.”

Gute, his wife, Jodi, and  three children continue to live in the Riverside area. He said the family plans to move to either Stanton or Tabor some time this summer.

“The plan is to be moved in by the start of school next fall,” he said.