BENTON—The Benton School will be seeking a new administrator as Kyle Luedtke has announced his resignation.
Luedtke has served the Benton School District for the last seven years. His last day will be June 30. He has accepted a position as district administrator of Sevastopol School District in Door County.

“I have enjoyed my seven years at Benton School District,” Luedtke stated in his resignation letter. “My family and I will greatly miss this special place. We have been blessed to have met many wonderful people during our time here. Our children have received a great start in their own education. For that, we will always be thankful.”

Luedtke noted several accomplishments during his tenure: refinancing the school’s remaining building loan debt, harboring the unfunded liability into a manageable loan, passing two referenda and maintaining a solid fund balance. He also mentioned increasing academic opportunities for Benton students, including the addition of AP courses, elementary Spanish and an after school tutoring program. Extracurricular opportunities also increased.

“They [the school district] are in good shape financially and it is a good opportunity for me and my family,” Luedtke said. “I feel like I’m leaving Benton in better shape than when I got here, and it was in good shape then. Financially and academically, everything is good. I was blessed when I got here, I had Gayle Wolf who was the bookkeeper who had been here 30-plus years and I have a secretary, Cheryl Johnson, who has been here 30 years. They were fundamental to my success here.”

Luedtke said Sevastopol School District has approximately 560 students with K-12 all in one building.

“They had the 10th best report card of the 424 schools in the state of Wisconsin,” Luedtke said. “That was the attractive part there.”

The Benton School Board decided to restructure the administrative positions at Benton Schools. Lisa Lawrence’s position as principal will be increased to 100 percent; she is currently teaching one class and next year will have no teaching responsibilities. The superintendent position will be reduced to 60 percent. Applications are due April 12.

The board also accepted the resignation of Myrna Sysko, who is retiring from her position as second grade teacher at the end of the school year.

The two-hour delay on March 13 took Benton below the required hours of instruction. Starting March 27, the junior high and high school have an additional five minutes of instruction to make up the 110 minutes by the end of the school year.