Crystal City High School Principal Matt Holdinghausen has been named the district’s new superintendent despite the objection of one school board member.
The Crystal City Board of Education voted 6-1 April 7 to promote Holdinghausen to superintendent, replacing Steven Barnes, who is leaving the job to be superintendent at the Morgan County R-2 School District in the southwestern part of the state, where he previously worked.
Barnes, who has been the Crystal City superintendent since July 2019 and assisted in the search for his replacement, said Holdinghausen was selected from 15 applicants for the position.
Holdinghausen is set to start the new job July 1, with a two-year contract and $108,188 annual salary for the first year. He is being paid $88,067 a year as the high school principal, the district reported.
Those who voted to promote Holdinghausen to the district’s top job were Ken Holdinghausen, Dala Beekman, Pat Cherry, Cindy Coleman, Lonnie Compton and Linda Schilly.
Board member Mandie Osher voted against promoting him and said she felt other candidates were better qualified for the job.
“The board had several meetings to discuss the applications as well as to do interviews,” Osher said. “We used a ranking system to find who the board felt was the top applicants. However, when it came time for the final vote of who the job would be offered to, many members of the board decided to go in a different direction than what had been our top candidate. I stuck with our original decision. I believe personal relationships should be set aside and we should pick the most qualified, experienced applicant that would be best suited to lead our district.”
Ken Holdinghausen, the board president, said while he is distantly related to Matt Holdinghausen, that connection played no part in his decision to vote in favor of promoting him to the job.
“Matt is my first cousin once-removed, which is a distant-enough relation under Missouri law and board policy to allow me to vote,” Ken Holdinghausen said. “I carefully researched the matter prior to voting as I am always mindful of ethical rules. My vote was within the bounds of Missouri law and board policy or I would have abstained.”
Ken Holdinghausen also said he felt Matt Holdinghausen was the right person for the job.
“My vote was not based on any family relationship with Matthew, but simply because of his service to our district as a principal and teacher and my confidence that he’s already demonstrated the ability to lead,” Ken Holdinghausen said.
Schilly also said she believed Matt Holdinghausen was the best candidate.
“I feel he was the best person for the job,” she said. “Matt has worked his way up the ranks as a teacher and a principal. I think he will work very hard. He has the time to work with our current superintendent the next three months to learn the position. He’s a very good, honest person.”
Schilly said another point in Matt Holdinghausen’s favor is his strong roots in the community.
“He’s here,” she said. “He’s not going to be leaving.”
Matt Holdinghausen, 43, is a 1995 graduate of Crystal City High School and has worked for the district since 2003.
He said he appreciates the board choosing him as the new superintendent.
“I’ve been in the district for a while and this is the next step I wanted in my career,” he said. “I look forward to the opportunity to lead Crystal City schools. I’m just happy to be able to do it.”
Matt Holdinghausen said the students are his top priority.
“My philosophy will always be to put the kids first in making my decisions,” he said. “If you do that, you can justify what decisions you’ve made.”
He said another priority for him is Proposition KIDS, a measure that was supposed to be on the April 7 ballot but now is set to be decided June 2, after Gov. Mike Parson pushed back the election because of the coronavirus pandemic. Proposition KIDS will ask district voters to allow the district to shift 80 cents from its debt service levy to its operating levy, freeing up money for the district to spend on general operations.
The issue would not require an immediate tax increase, but the debt service levy would eventually end, whereas shifting it to the operating levy makes it a permanent tax.
Matt Holdinghausen earned a bachelor’s degree from Lindenwood University in 2000, as well as a master’s degree in 2014 and a specialist degree in education in 2018, both from Southeast Missouri State University.
He began his career in education in 2002 in the Jefferson R-7 School District as a junior high business/computer teacher and the next year joined the Crystal City School District to teach business education and English-language arts at Crystal City High School. He also coached football, softball and baseball at the junior high and high school levels. He has served as principal of Crystal City High School since 2015.
He and his wife, Emily, live in Crystal City and have three children; Abbey, 20; Ian, 17; and Luke, 13.