So the State College school board is expected to name a new superintendent Monday evening.
For Mike Hardy, that means one hell of a wild ride is coming to an end.
Or so I hope, anyway — for his sake.
Hardy, the motorcycle-loving interim superintendent for the State College public schools, has found himself in an unenviable public spotlight since December.
Actually, his unsolicited adventure began in November, when he was still the assistant superintendent. It was then, on a Thursday, that he collected his boss at the time — then-Superintendent Richard Mextorf — from the state police.
After Mextorf committed DUI and was caught in Clinton County, according to court documents, Hardy picked him up at the Lamar police barracks.
Since then, it seems, the hits for Hardy have been nonstop.
Mextorf soon resigned, and the school board appointed Hardy the acting superintendent in December — a transition inevitably awkward under the circumstances.
But awkwardness was perhaps the least of Hardy’s worries; after all, he was immediately eyeball-deep in many complicated tasks that Mextorf left unfinished:
A new elementary-level math curriculum. The direction of Memorial Field’s still-uncertain future. A redistricting plan for some elementary schools. Untangling a controversial financial agreement with a Canadian bank. And the biggie — collective-bargaining contract negotiations.
Hardy didn’t ask for the mess. By all accounts, he didn’t throw his hat into the ring to be Mextorf’s long-term successor, either. That is to say, he wasn’t looking for a power play.
No, to my eye, Hardy stepped up in the interim because he could do so; because the board believes in him; and because some moments in life call a person to take on something greater than himself.
This was Hardy’s moment.
But the madness had only just begun.
In March, Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget proposal helped open a deeper anticipated K-12 budget gap than just about anyone in State College could have imagined. An already-dire fiscal outlook turned worse — the worst in everybody’s memory — and necessitated painful programming- and staff-reduction proposals, setting off extended anguish across the Centre Region.
To make matters even more complicated, it’s an election year for the school board. Political drama is in season. And in a district where board members traditionally have revered superintendents’ opinions, Hardy has been faced with a board divided on some key questions.
There’s in-car driver education, which — in a Hardy-supported move — a board majority has sought to end. (Still, the issue is coming back for reconsideration. More on that in the days to come.)
There are the proposed job cuts, which Hardy has taken pains to emphasize are no reflection on anyone’s — or any program’s — value. (Board members have accepted some of the administration’s proposed personnel cuts, but rejected others.)
And then there’s the revenue-generating option of participant fees for student activities, an idea that the school board seriously considered for some time. Last month, though, Hardy took an unequivocal stand against the idea, arguing that it would ‘innately disadvantage students’ in a public environment.
The board appeared to back off — rather quickly — from any further consideration of the fee idea.
Right there, that’s the Mike Hardy I know from my youth: a thoughtfully principled, reasonable, engaging leader with a real compass.
When I was a State High student in the late ’90s, Hardy was a building administrator there. I got to know him mainly because I did the student-journalism thing; I was often poking around the administrative offices for stories and information, generally being a pain in the butt.
Not everyone there was too fond of that. Hardy never seemed to mind. He was affable, interested, rational, unflinchingly respectful.
Plus, he rode a motorcycle to work — something he still does now. He was cool, but not in the ‘He’ll let us do anything’ way. (Bikers don’t screw around.) He was cool because he treated us like people, as individuals, not as sheep to be herded.
Even now, in his short-term and much-higher-pressure, higher-profile ascension to the schools’ top job, I get the same vibe from him.
Any high-profile leader will be criticized and have his — or her — detractors. Hardy probably has some of his own.
But if you ask me, the State College area owes him a pat on the back. A high-five. A honk and a wave on the open road. An adult beverage or two — in moderation, of course.
As superintendents go, Hardy is a young man. This six-month, interim-superintendent gig wasn’t a final act for him — it was a critical chapter of service as he builds, I’m certain, toward something greater both for himself and for the communities he serves.
This season, as Hardy returns to his former role as assistant superintendent, here’s hoping he finds time to decompress, reflect, indulge in family time and ride his motorcyle through the gorgeous valleys of central Pennsylvania.
God knows he’s earned it.
