Clark Wicks; photo courtesy of the Orient-Macksburg School District

The Perry School Board has come to a decision on who will lead the district, naming Clark Wicks as their new superintendent.

At a special meeting Thursday night, the board held an additional round of interviews with the two candidates, Wicks and Shaun Kruger. The interviews were conducted in a closed session with only the school board members present. When the board reconvened, they deliberated for around 90 minutes before announcing their decision to hire Wicks to succeed retiring Superintendent Lynn Ubben.

Wicks is currently serving as the superintendent for the Orient-Macksburg School District, which Board President Kyle Baxter said worked in his favor. They felt Wicks having experience running a district gave him the edge. Both men have ties to the Perry District, as Kruger has been the principal at Perry Middle School since 2005 and Wicks served as the Perry Elementary School principal from 1989-2012.

The Board said it was not an easy decision to make since both were quality choices for the position. Board member Linda Andorf added, “We’ve all had a lot of input from the community this week. And I speak for myself and the rest of the board, we truly appreciate all the phone calls we’ve gotten. Because it was a very difficult choice to make, because they’re both very fine educators. And just trying to find the one who is at this point in time going to be the best fit for Perry.”

The Board was originally going to announce the new superintendent at this past week’s public meeting, but they experienced a deadlock and couldn’t choose between the two men, creating the need for a second round of interviews. Wicks will finish out the school year at Orient-Macksburg and take over at Perry on July 1st. The board is hopeful Kruger will stay on as Middle School principal.