Mike Estes is the new superintendent at Bath schools, starting Aug. 1.
Photo courtesy of Allen County Educational Service Center
LIMA — Bath schools announced Thursday the district has found a new superintendent to take over, starting Aug. 1.
Mike Estes, a board member of the Allen County Educational Service Center, will take the position. He hopes to parlay it into a long-term role.
“Whenever I go into any new position, it’s more or less a case of finding out what’s going on and what’s been successful, as well as areas that we might need to work on, and the best way to find that out is to listen to and talk to people who have been there for a period of time,” Estes said. “They’ve given me a year to evaluate things to try to put them in a position to hire a superintendent, and once that is up, this relationship could extend beyond the year. It would be a discussion later in the year, but anything I could do to help them prepare for the future, I would want to do it and help the district and the board get to where it wants to be.”
Ester previously served as superintendent at Spencerville for four years and 10 years at Crestview, as well as three years as a superintendent in Michigan. He also was a high school assistant principal and a middle school principal at different times in his life.
The Bath school board received 262 community survey responses when superintendent Rich Dackin announced his intention to resign and move forward as a teacher in the district. The results, as well as the board’s prerequisites, ended up matching with Estes as the strongest candidate.
“The board had some criteria that we wanted to see in the next superintendent. And using those two things with the candidate pool, Mike was somebody who jumped out at us as far as meeting a lot of that criteria and we thought it would be a great fit for the district,” said Phil White, the board president.
Estes, who has spent decades in education as a superintendent and principal, certainly had the experience to put him in the front.
“I think what we’re looking forward to is Mike being somebody who has a variety of experiences and being able to share some of the techniques he has used,” White said. “He’s very familiar with many schools in our area, and he can be a quick fit into our community, getting to know the faculty and staff. I think we’re looking forward to him being able to contribute highly in the early days of continuing us moving forward on a few projects that we have underway, including new buildings to replace our middle school and high school, and Mike has some experience with that, as well.”
Estes, for his part, said that he views finances as one of the most important parts of being a superintendent.
“In order to do what it needs to do to help the kids in the community, you need to have the resources, and I’d like to think that I’m pretty good at being able to find resources to accomplish our mission,” he said. “I also always like to take a closer look at our preventive maintenance program, what our building process looks like and what we need to do to keep them in great shape. As I traveled through the district and around the grounds a few week ago, I found them to be in very good shape, and I haven’t been inside the buildings yet, but I will do that and work with the maintenance and custodial department to see if there are any issues we need to address.”
For his part, Dackin said that he was proud of what he accomplished during his time as superintendent, including the development of a strategic plan and a new hall of fame. Although he is ready for a change, Dackin said he is glad that he will not be leaving the district and will enjoy continuing to work with children. He also said that is looking forward to seeing how the district continues to build off of his accomplishments.
“I hope they continue with a strategic plan and abiding by the missing statement that we’re going to provide the best learning environment that we can for kids while challenging them in the classroom,” he said.
White said that the board hopes that Estes continues with many of the things Dackin accomplished. Even though he for now is a short-term solution, he is not an interim superintendent.
“I think we want to continue to work at making Bath a place people want to come and teach at and making it a strong, safe place for students to get an education and classes they would like to have,” he said. “We want to see Mike continue to embrace some of the career pathway curriculum we’re developing from the middle school and on, and we want to use Mike to help develop some of the master planning in the building and grounds planning that we have for the overall shaping of the district over the next 10 years.”
For Estes, it will mean a lot, after being retired during the pandemic, to move on from his role with the ESC, but that, even if he is not with Bath schools for very long, he hopes to remain in education and even potentially return to the ESC board.
The Bath Board of Education said that it will soon take the results of the survey public and use the time that Estes’ hiring has bought them to explore a long-term solution.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
