The Clarion-Goldfield-Dows School District will soon have a new superintendent as Jared Carder prepares to officially assume the role on July 1.
Carder was selected by the school board last fall and will succeed retiring Superintendent Joe Nelson. After serving as a teacher, coach and administrator for 16 years, Carder says he’s excited to take on a position that will allow him to become even more involved throughout the district and community.
“And I knew that taking that next step in my leadership journey would not only allow me to have more opportunities to partner with community people and organizations and things like that, but also it would continue to challenge me as a person, as a professional,” Carder says.” And that’s something that I’m always seeking out is trying to push myself for myself personally, but then also how can I help more people. And so when you are, you know, the top dog, so to speak, you can have a pretty big impact and I really want to try to have a positive impact on our three communities in our school district.”
Carder has spent the past three years in the district, most recently serving as PreK-8 principal. As he prepares to step into the superintendent’s office, he says Nelson has helped make the transition a smooth one.
“You know, this is my third year working with him. He has given me a ton of opportunities to grow as a leader,” Carder says. “You know, as I was going through the superintendent prep program at UNI, he was my mentor and he really kind of gave me the reins in a whole bunch of situations that would help prepare me for it. Cause you have to get right around 400 clinical hours. And so majority of those were with him and in situations, seeing how he would handle it, you know, he’d ask me how I would handle a different situation and a lot of coaching involved. So it’s been a really a good partnership.”
Before coming to Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, Carder served as an elementary principal in Eagle Grove and spent 10 years teaching and coaching in the Clear Creek Amana School District. He officially begins his duties as superintendent July 1.
Full interview below
