Dr. Mark Miles, current superintendent for the Indian Hills School District in Indian Hill, Ohio, will begin his job as Rockwood superintendent on July 1, after Dr. Eric Knost’s contract ends.

Loralee Mondl, president of the Rockwood Board of Education (BOE), said that Dr. Miles was chosen out of a pool of 24 potential candidates. After the BOE narrowed those 24 candidates down to two people, community members and the BOE individually interviewed those two candidates and selected Dr. Miles. The Board formally announced his hiring on Feb. 7.

“Dr. Miles really stood out,” Mondl said. “He’s really student-centered, he has a social media presence, he loves to interact with his district, and he comes from a really high performing district, just like Rockwood. He’s just very genuine.” 

Mondl said the Indian Hills School District is named 6th best in the country under Dr. Miles as superintendent. Dr. Miles had several new gymnasiums and performing arts areas built for his current district to work with as well. Mondl said that he could bring a lot of knowledge on finances and budget allocation to the Rockwood School District

Indian Hills School District is a smaller district than Rockwood, but Mondl said she doesn’t think the shift to a large district like Rockwood will make a difference in the long run.

“When coming in from a smaller district to a larger district, you’re still going to have to do the same things,” Mondl said. “You’re still going to have to educate kids, feed kids, figure out ways to maximize the budget, give opportunities to kids. He can transfer the skills he already has and just amplify them for Rockwood, because it’s the same system, just at a bigger magnitude.”

Mondl also said Dr. Miles will be a great asset in terms of finding solutions to issues that are at the forefront of Rockwood right now.

“I would put him in the same place as Dr. Knost in terms of innovation,” Mondl said. “He’s an outside the box thinker, so he’s really going to be listening to people about things like VICC that are being talked about right now, help us improve and help our kids the best we can, and hopefully push the envelope even higher.”

Elizabeth Ghory, junior, said  the superintendent will be a good fit for Rockwood.

“From what I’ve read, I think he has a lot of qualifications and a lot of experience as a superintendent,” Ghory said. “So it’ll be good to have that smooth transition.”

Ghory said she hopes the superintendent operates similar to how Dr. Knost operated. 

“One of the things I liked most about Dr. Knost was that he made an effort to be in every school,” Ghory said. “He also made an effort to interact with all the students, which was really nice.”

Ghory said that interaction  makes the district stronger.

“I’ve been in the district since kindergarten and I couldn’t even tell you the name of my first superintendent,” Ghory said. “That’s how uninvolved they were. So I hope the new superintendent makes that effort to know the kids in his district.”

Dr. Greg Mathison, principal, also said it would be nice for Dr. Miles to emulate the same values Dr. Knost had.

“I liked hearing that he has experience and has worked in a high-performance school district like ours,” Dr. Mathison said. “I think he can help move us forward to where we can be in the future.”

Dr. Mathison said he hopes to get a better idea of the new superintendent once he actually meets Dr. Miles, who will visit the district after Spring Break.

Dr. Mathison said he also hopes that Dr. Miles truly understands the objective for Rockwood.

“I think we’ve done a fantastic job to make sure our kids thrive, as that is our mission,” Dr. Mathison said. “I hope he continues that as our focus because we are here for our students and our families. When we start thinking that we are here for other reasons, we start to get off track.”

Like Ghory, Dr. Mathison also said it would be best if Dr. Miles continued Dr. Knost’s legacy of being very involved within the district, along with the other benefits that he brought to Rockwood.

Dr. Miles will be visiting the district in the last week of March. The BOE is planning to have an event in which community members can have a meet and greet with the new superintendent to ask questions and get to know him.