District hires new superintendent

Posted

The Seward Public School District Board of Education offered the superintendent position to Dr. Josh Fields, director of curriculum and staff development at Seward Public Schools. Fields was among four finalists who went through official interviews last week.

Students, support staff, community members, teachers and administrators interacted with each finalist March 6, 7, 8 and 9. The board conducted interviews with the finalists before making its unanimous decision. The new superintendent’s contract was scheduled to be voted on at the board’s regular meeting March 13.

In December of 2016, current superintendent Dr. Greg Barnes announced his plan to take an administrator position with ESU 11 in Holdrege after the current school year.

Fields grew up in northeast Nebraska. After high school, he graduated from Wayne State College with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. He and his wife, Jamie, moved to Liberty, Missouri, where he taught for six years as a fourth-grade teacher. He then became elementary principal for three years at Lewis and Clark Elementary in the Liberty School District.

While in Missouri, he received a masters and specialist degree from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

He then took a job within the Millard Public Schools to be closer to the couple’s families. He was an elementary building administrator for five years with Millard.

While in Millard, he received a doctorate in education from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

For the last five years, he has been the director of curriculum and staff development for Seward Public Schools.

The couple lives in Seward and has two children: a daughter, Karsyn, third grade, and a son, Christian, seventh grade.