Columbia Public Schools names new superintendent
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Columbia Public Schools made an internal hire -- a recent addition to the district -- the new superintendent Thursday.
Jeff Klein, the current chief academic officer at CPS, will be the head of the district in the 2025-26 academic year. He will replace Chris Belcher, a retired former CPS superintendent who returned to lead the district on an interim basis after the district parted ways with Brian Yearwood last fall.
Yearwood was paid more than $667,000 in a buyout.
Klein says the staff and faculty that he worked with during his time as chief academic officer impressed him, which is one of the things that drew him to the district.
“We have a fantastic foundation to build on. CPS has a legacy and a history of academic success. A legacy and a history of valuing education in this community and a history of innovation in general. So, that to me is very attractive.”
Klein was hired at CPS before the current school year. He spent 18 years in the Park Hill School District in the Kansas City area, with nine of those years as the assistant superintendent for academic services. He worked for Satchel, an education software company, before being hired at CPS.
His experience working at CPS is one of the things that made him an attractive candidate for the district.
“We were looking for somebody who we thought would be the best fit for our district. Even though somebody else may have had superintendent experience, no one had superintendent experience at Columbia Public Schools,” Board of Education President Suzette Waters said.
Klein was one-of-22 applicants for the position, 13 of which had previous superintendent experience. Klein was not one of them, but says his 23 years of experience in education have him well prepared for the job.
“I've actually been mentored and supervised by six different superintendents. Highly successful with a lot of different strengths and attributes that I've been able to learn from over the years,” Klein said
CPS says this was a nationwide search with an extensive screening process that included applicants filling out personality and leadership assessments. According to Klein, applicants also completed extended interviews, which involved “deep questions about experiences of specific changes that we've made.”
“He was extremely well-spoken and he smashed the interview,” Waters said. “He was able to answer all of the questions with and give examples based on his experience and provide us with the assurance we needed that he was the person that was going to be able to lead our district.”
Transparency was a top priority for respondents in a survey conducted in December regarding the superintendent search. To address this, Klein plans to enhance transparency by hosting listening sessions with the public and district staff.
“I think that communication is really is critical. It's a critical element of leadership, especially in the superintendency. I'm going to be very present in the community and provide lots of opportunities for all stakeholders to provide input,” Klein said.
Another top priority in survey results was keeping and retaining staff
“One of the most important things that we can do for students is to make sure that their classroom is being taught by highly qualified, highly trained, expert, caring teachers,” Klein said. “We have so many of those teachers in our district. We really do. But there are a lot of positions that are have been hard for us to fill.”
When asked the best way to achieve that, Klein said a committee is currently studying the best way to recruit and retain staff before things start being put in place. Klein added that another one of his goals is to make sure students are leaving the district set-up for success.
“From a vision perspective, I want us to be laser-focused on ensuring that graduates are graduating fully prepared to thrive in college, career and life. That's one thing we're going to continue to work on is how are we measuring and assessing to what degree our graduates are not only doing well on assessments, but they're also successful once they leave us,” Klein said.
Details about Klein's contract have not yet been released, but the district says it will be available to the public next week. A public meet and greet with Klein will be held from 4:30-6:30 p.m. March 20 at the Aslin Administration Building.
