The Grandview R-2 School District has hired a new superintendent for the next school year.
At the Dec. 18 Grandview Board of Education meeting, the board voted unanimously to hire Leslie Lause as the district’s next superintendent.
Lause, 48, will replace current superintendent Matt Zoph, who will retire at the end of this school year. Lause was chosen from 24 applicants.
Zoph, who has held the position since 2011, was paid $179,822.55 annually; Lause will make $170,000.
Lause will be coming from Gasconade County R-1 School District in Hermann, where she has been the associate superintendent since 2021.
“(I have) lots of emotion, excited, a little nervous; this will be my first superintendent job,” Lause said. “I’ve been an assistant superintendent for the last five years, but getting to lead a district like Grandview, I’m definitely excited about that opportunity.”
According to a statement from the Grandview district, she has worked in several positions and districts including principal at Central Elementary in the Union R-11 School District; assistant principal at Union Middle School and Clark-Vitt Elementary (2012–2013); computers teacher at Beaufort Elementary and Technology; math teacher at Union Middle School (2007–2011); and a math and reading teacher at Owensville Middle School in the Gasconade County R-2 School District (2002–2007).
Lause said her goal as she starts her new position will be to assess how the district works.
“(I will) just sit back, watch, learn and listen and try to figure out how things work (at Grandview) and where we are,” she said. “Getting public opinion and perspectives on where we’re at and collectively decide where we’re going to go together.”
Lause will start the new position July 1, 2026.
She currently lives in Beaufort, but plans to move closer to the Grandview district. Lause and her husband, Ben, have four children: Josie, 24; Angelina, 24; Emily, 23; and Brady, 20.