This story was written by Lia Salvatierra, our new Education Reporter. Find more of Lia’s reporting here. Do you have an NKY education story? Email lsalvatierra@linknky.com.
Boone County Schools Superintendent Dr. Jeff Hauswald moves through the district office with the energy of a man running his first marathon mile.
It’s hard to tell this is Hauswald’s 17th year as a superintendent across three school districts, a job he first took in Indiana when he was 35.
He relocated to Northern Kentucky to join Boone County Schools in 2024 from Monroe County Community School Corporation in Indiana.
When Hauswald started, the board tasked him with turning “a system of schools into a school system,” he said.
He’s focused on streamlining language arts and math curriculum across schools and is proud of the district’s improved academic achievement.
He noted Boone County Schools as the only district in Kentucky with academic scores higher than pre-pandemic scores at the end of the 2024 school year, when the district hired him.
“We have eliminated the learning loss from COVID,” Hauswald told LINK nky.
He’s published accomplishments during his tenure in annual progress reports, like reducing the number of vacant staff positions last school year.
Hauswald considers his life “peripatetic,” meaning it incorporates constant movement or travel.
His office features corkboard maps and a collection of Starbucks coffee mugs showcasing the places he’s visited. Only Hawaii and New Mexico stand between him and completing a marathon in all 50 states — a goal set in 1998.
He crossed off Alaska earlier this summer, during a trip there with his wife Cassie, the Indiana Executive Director of the Nature Conservancy.
He proposed to her after a challenging marathon in Vermont, the ring in his backpack.
“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to survive this race because I have an expensive ring in my backpack, and I at least want Cassie to know about it,’” he laughed.
The Hauswalds have three dogs and are often hiking or reading.
Growing up, Hauswald was often helping out on his family’s corn, wheat, soybean and cattle farm in Indiana. The book he currently has in hand, “Dandelion Wine,” by Ray Bradbury, echoes of his childhood summers.
Reading, running and a career in education came later in life. He was, and still is, a math guy.
It was his father, a science teacher, who convinced him to get a teacher certification on top of his math degree from Indiana University.
After graduating, he got a call for a math teacher opening, which he accepted, falling in love with the classroom.
Between that job and becoming a superintendent, he held many other roles, as a coach, principal, athletic director, saying he’s learned from every position.
“It’s important for many people that you walk in their shoes,” he said.
Despite running the largest school district in Northern Kentucky, Hauswald said he aims to stay grounded in his staff and students’ everyday life. Books are one way Hauswald loves to connect with his staff, often sharing what he’s thinking of reading, in case they want to join him.
He also tries to spend an hour each day in one of the district’s 26 schools. He buys pizza lunches for groups of high schoolers each month to ask them about themselves, what they think their school is doing well and what it could be doing better.
“You’ll also learn that they have insights in improving schools that you would never know, if you didn’t take the time to ask,” he said.
Recently some high schoolers told him they want an internationally-focused curriculum, so they’d be prepared for careers in areas like medicine or law outside of the U.S.
Hauswald said he’s now working to incorporate their feedback with the curriculum department.
His broader goals for the year are managing the school district’s continuing growth and addressing things like school bus routes facing staffing issues.
Editor’s Note: This is part of an ongoing series led by our new Education Reporter Lia Salvatierra. Click here to meet Beechwood’s Superintendent.
