Dr. Randy Ziegenfuss will end his role as superintendent of Salisbury Township School District officially at the beginning of January 2021.

“It has been the most rewarding of all my roles. It has also been the most challenging,” Ziegenfuss said during an interview Dec. 7.

Ziegenfuss has been in education for nearly 35 years.

He was with the East Penn School District for 19 years.

He started with the Salisbury Township School District July 1, 2006 as the director of technology. In 2012, he was named assistant superintendent for the district and was named superintendent Jan. 1, 2015.

Ziegenfuss said the challenges this past year have been particularly concerning, including the district’s financial picture, the closing of Western Salisbury Elementary School, the COVID-19 global pandemic and challenging labor negotiations with the support staff, including the potential for outsourcing food service and custodial labor.

“All staff ended up taking a salary freeze this year,” Ziegenfuss said.

Ziegenfuss said additional challenges the past 15 years have included moving the district forward, getting devices into the hands of learners and recognizing how a changing world is changing how the students learn.

“Learning how to change the educational system to be more in line with the outside world to give our learners opportunities is an ongoing challenge,” Ziegenfuss said.

Ziegenfuss said his work in music has been at his core as a leader. “Music is about doing. As I got into the technology realm, I saw inauthentic learning - things like memorizing and taking tests. As I got more involved in learning, that disconnect became much more apparent to me especially in the early stages of technology use in schools. I got involved in the early 1990s, right when computers got into the classrooms.”

Ziegenfuss said he saw technology help teachers get more organized in sending information.

“That’s what got me interested in the tech piece; I knew that could be how we could change the way students learn,” Ziegenfuss said.

“In 2006, the district was hungry to move beyond one computer in a classroom.” Ziegenfuss shared former Salisbury Township School District Superintendent Dr. Mary Anne Wright and Assistant Superintendent Louise Beauchemin knew something had to change. “We worked with teachers and many others in the organization.”

Ziegenfuss began to do research on the way students’ learning needs were changing.

“It started with intuition; there was a disconnect in learning.”

“Any progress made over the last 15 years has been a team effort. There has also been more parent involvement,” Ziegenfuss said.

Ziegenfuss said he is most proud of building the leadership team and working with leaders to develop new ways of thinking about teaching and learning.

He is also proud of helping make Salisbury the first district in the area to have a technology device for each student.

Other accomplishments include the development of teaching and learning for the district and the portrait of a graduate, now a national movement. Portrait of a graduate defines the knowledge, skills and dispositions students really need to be successful.

He reiterated all of these accomplishments are a group effort - leaders, teachers, school board, parents and community.

Despite these accomplishments, there are regrets as well.

“As a result of the pandemic, we have been forced into decision making that has become much more reactive and operational” Ziegenfuss said. “It is hard to support teachers to change their practice in the classroom while we are trying to react to conditions created by the pandemic. These decisions are diverting our energy off the real work. Repeatedly, the leaders have said, ‘We can’t wait to get back to the real work’ - now we are just working on how will we move forward with getting kids back in our schools,” Ziegenfuss said.

Ziegenfuss teaches at Delaware Valley University in the doctoral program. He also teaches at Moravian College in the master’s program.

He has made some plans for the immediate future.

“I love learning, I want to take a year and learn more about strategic foresight, the future of learning for students and the future of teaching. I want to explore the signals more and I want to better help schools understand the future of learning and why we need to change.”

“The board is leaving the district in good hands with Lynn [Fuini-Hetten]. She has been an amazing work partner and we have grown together through a lot of really good collaborative work. Appointing Lynn as the next superintendent was a logical next step for the district.”

Ziegenfuss is grateful for the time spent at Salisbury Township School District.

“I have had the opportunity to build a lot of good, lasting relationships over the last 15 years with the board, staff, teachers and parents. Our teachers are on the ground doing great work. I enjoyed having conversations with them about what they were doing. I have missed having conversations with our students over the last nine months. I think that was one of our strengths as a team - we had our fingers on the pulse of the kids, their voice, what they needed.”