Daniel Freund announced his retirement from the superintendent position of Mansfield City School district in early June. His term will finish on July 1. And on June 11, 2013, the Board of Education elected Brian Garverick, principal for Mansfield Senior High School since 2009, as superintendent.
Garverick said, “I am very excited to work for such an amazing board. They have had to make some tough decisions in the past and they work very hard. I look forward to continuing their work and to improve the students’ achievements.”
Garverick graduated from Mansfield High School in 1976. Since graduation, he has been a part of the Mansfield community. His knowledge of the district and experience with Mansfield are the credentials the board desired, which aided the board in making a quick decision to replace Freund. Garverick’s term is effective beginning July 1, when Freund’s retirement begins.
As for Freund, he will retire in Richland county, where he will make time for his family in California and continue to farm. “I really like the area. I do some farming; I raise cattle and hay. I would like to travel, but as far as a place to live, I think I’ll stick with Richland County,” said Freund. His career has been focused on leading and influencing a broad spectrum of people, and now he is choosing to focus on his family. At age 64, he is ready to settle down, create flex in his schedule to be with his four grandchildren that live in Fresno, California. “They are at the age now where they’re involved with sports and different activities in school. I don’t want to miss that,” he said.
Freund’s term took steps to add to literacy and mathematics programming. During the first 18 months of his term, Freund worked with district teachers to reignite the Literacy Collaboration, an initiative to focus on students’ literacy in reading and writing. Following the literacy project, he worked closely with professors from Ohio State Mansfield as part of nationally recognized initiative, the Algebra Project. In many places, the project is devoted solely to helping high school students achieve math literacy. Freund, however, wanted to start younger. He, local teachers, and professors designed their program uniquely for the younger generation.
Beyond programming, Freund oversaw a number capital improvements. His term saw the start-up of the Springmill Learning Center. In the space that was formerly The Springmill Elementary School, the center’s Facebook pages states that it is designed to offer “experience-based learning in outdoor education, challenge courses, interactive science displays, and planetarium programs” in addition to a variety of other educational programming. Freund also focused on improving the district’s infrastructure with air conditioning units, heating units, and even synthetic turf was installed to Mansfield’s stadium at Arlin Field.
“I am happy for him because he will now have more time for his family,” noted Chris Elswick, president of Mansfield’s Board of Education. “But we are also sad because he was such an asset to the team here in Mansfield.”
Freund leaves the superintendent post with over 43 years of experience in education.