Oshkosh Schools Selects Next Superintendent
28 May 2021 News
Oshkosh, WI – The Oshkosh School Board is pleased to announce that it has offered the District superintendency position to Dr. Bryan Davis, Superintendent of the Shorewood School District and former Oshkosh West High School teacher.
The Board will meet on Tuesday, June 1 at 4 p.m. to vote on Davis’ contract with the District, which would start effective July 1, 2021.
Davis said Thursday that he is excited to return to Oshkosh, where he and his wife met, got married, bought a house and started raising their family while Davis taught business education at Oshkosh West from 1998 to 2002.
“My wife Dawn and I feel blessed to be called back home to serve with a talented staff to support the academic growth and wellness of all of our kids in Oshkosh,” Davis said. “We have always considered Oshkosh a special place for our family.”
School Board President Bob Poeschl said the Board was impressed with the high quality of the candidates and three finalists and felt Davis was the best fit to lead Oshkosh, the 11th largest district in Wisconsin.
“Dr. Davis embodies all of the qualities the community and Board were seeking – a leader with experience in building positive staff culture, strong community involvement and equitable student growth and achievement,” Poeschl said Thursday. “The Board enthusiastically supports the hiring of Dr. Davis.”
Davis has served as Superintendent of the Shorewood School District in northeastern Milwaukee County since 2015 and before that, was Superintendent of the Columbus School District about 30 miles northeast of Madison from 2010 to 2015.
Before moving to Columbus, Davis served four years each as Principal of Green Bay Southwest High School and Assistant Principal of Green Bay Preble High School. Prior to joining Preble in 2002, Davis was a business education teacher at Oshkosh West High School and New Lisbon High School.
Davis has a Doctorate in Urban Education from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, a Master of Education in Educational Administration from UW – Milwaukee and Bachelor of Science in Education from UW – Whitewater. He taught two university-level courses in fall 2017 and summer 2020 at Cardinal Stritch University and UW – Milwaukee, respectively.
He has been published in the Harvard Education Law Review, graduated from the AASA National Superintendent Certification Program and raised more than $1 million in donations to support student programming in Shorewood.
In 2016 Davis led a Shorewood district visioning process that included more than 100 staff and community members who helped set the district’s strategic plan through 2025. He listed among his accomplishments: improving District DPI Report Card scores from Exceeds Expectations from 2012-2017 to Significantly Exceeds Expectations from 2017-2019; winning the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Top Workplace Award in 2018; increasing access to Professional Wellness Counseling in each school through a partnership with Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin; and passing a $65 million referendum to increase school safety, improve handicap accessibility and modernize learning environments.
At Columbus, Davis oversaw increases to that district’s DPI Report Card scores, $8.5 million in facilities renovations, a partnership with local businesses to create the Columbus/Fall River Manufacturing Alliance and a new K-12 Project Lead the Way STEM program.
In his application for the position, Davis described his leadership style as consisting of three core values: grace, humility and persistence. “Grace provides ourselves and each other with the love and mercy we need to make mistakes and get stronger,” he wrote. “Humility guides us beyond ourselves to seek wisdom from our students, colleagues, families and community. Persistence helps us focus on our goals of student growth and embrace the difficulty the journey provides. This leadership style has led me to build diverse, collaborative teams that push beyond their own individual biases to serve all students.”
Davis said he would build trust through demonstrating integrity in decision-making processes and following through on his commitments. “I am confident we can work together to unify the staff and community and lead the Oshkosh Area School District into the next chapter of educational excellence,” Davis wrote.
Davis would succeed Superintendent Dr. Vickie Cartwright, who announced in March she planned to step down from the role effective June 30 after three years leading the district. The school district hired Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA) 6 to lead the Board through the search process.
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About the OASD: Building community through education. The Oshkosh Area School District is located in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, serving nearly 10,000 students and operating 13 elementary schools, five middle schools, two high schools, two charter schools, and an eAcademy. For more information, visit www.oshkosh.k12.wi.us.
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