A new top Bulldog
Salani hired as Hancock Schools superintendent
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HANCOCK -- High school principal, athletic director and intertim superintendent Chris Salani was named the school district's new superintendent at the school board's special meeting on Monday.
Salani was selected as interim superintendent on Aug. 7, after Steve Patchin resigned, effective Sept. 30. Since then, the board has worked with the Michigan Association of School Boards on conducting a thorough search for a permanent superintendent and superintendent evaluation training.
Since August, Salani has overseen the hiring of staff, worked with OHN on the ongoing bond projects, and the discussions of the one-year contract with the Portage Lake District Library.
The board had the option to post the superintendent position externally, Board President Catherine Jordan said, but budget concerns and timelines prompted them to post the position internally first.
Trustee Wendy Chynoweth said that an external posting would have cost more than $2,000 in addition to the cost of working with the MASB. Jordan said another major drawback was that the district could not expect to hire an external superintendent before January, time the district currently does not have.
Among the challenges facing the district over the next year is budgetary contractions due to declining enrollment, compounded by the end of federal COVID funding. Other concerns facing the district include Barkell Elementary School Principal Dan Vaara retiring at the end of the 2023-24 academic year, and similar changes.
Because of Salani's background, both with Hancock Schools and previously with Finlandia University, he is already very knowledgeable on the concerns and challenges facing not only the district, but students, too.
Salani is a Hancock native and a graduate of Hancock Schools, where his father was an educator for 26 years. For several years, he worked with OHM as a project manager, specifically working with school districts on major bond capital improvements. Directly prior to that, he said, he worked for two years as the elementary physical education teacher at Barkell Elementary, which included a seventh-grade class.
Prior to that, he spent several years at Finlandia.
"This is the one," he said, "where when people have questions they ask the most about."
Athletics has been a very important role in his life, he told the board. For 14 years, he was the athletic director at Finlandia. Early in his tenure, there were only three sports. He helped grow that to 17 before his departure.
In addition to his role in athletics at Finlandia, for five years, he was chairman of the Budget Planning Committee for the institution. For eight years, he chaired the Sport Management Program, where developed the curriculum in what became the largest business program of the institution of that time.
He spent a bit less than five years as the Associate Provost for Student Development at Finlandia, having authority over all student life, student housing, security, as well as food service.
During much of his time at Finlandia, he said, he filled all those roles simultaneously, he was, arguably, dealing with a budget of $6 to 6.5 million for the institution on a daily basis.
"So, that's not something that's been publicly, or really has been recognized," Salani said. "I don't share that often, but those roles helped shape opportunities within a professional career. We take on those extra hats; we take on those leadership roles in support -- and I say this in truth, not for the benefit of myself -- in support of those I was serving. That was the students at Finlandia at the time, which I continue to do here as my role as the high school principal and A.D. It's serving the students and their families."
In, 2019, he became Hancock's High School principal and athletic director.
Mary Brayak, the consultant with the MASB and educational search specialist, who has worked with the school board on the selection process, said she has been impressed with the board's commitment to the process.
"The first thing I want to say about this board," Brayak said, "is that they have clearly done their due diligence. In terms of the process, and what they had to do correctly, in order to secure a superintendent."