Lewis Central Community Schools’ Board of Education approved the appointment of Lisa Hartman as director of curriculum, instruction and assessment during its meeting on Monday.
She will replace Kim Jones, who is retiring at the end of June.
Most recently, Hartman was director of education services and media at Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency in Pocahontas, where she oversaw school improvement facilitators and worked with schools on professional development, Every Student Succeeds Act and multi-tiered systems of support. The agency serves more than 38 school districts in 14 counties in northwest and north-central Iowa.
“Lisa Hartman comes with a wealth of experience relative to the work she’ll be doing for us around curriculum, instruction, assessment and professional development,” Superintendent Eric Knost said. “Her graduate degrees are relative to this work, she has successfully served in a broader scope under her current AEA role and she has experience as a building principal. She will be an excellent addition to the LC team.”
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She started her career in education at Omaha South High School, where she taught ninth-grade English, 10th-grade economics and financial literacy, 10th-grade human geography, 9-12 English as a second language and 9-12 journalism. She then served as a principal at Farragut-Nishna Valley before becoming an assistant principal and then principal at Nevada Middle School.
Hartman earned a bachelor’s degree in English at Iowa State University with a minor in technical communication, but followed her father’s footsteps into insurance.
“While I liked what I was doing, I felt like there was something missing,” she said. “I thought back to all of the times that I felt like I was walking in my purpose, and I recalled all of the times I was doing something to help young people. For example, in college, I was a Y-pal mentor, I refereed kids’ basketball games and I was a Destination Iowa State team leader. After college, I got involved with a local CASA program and volunteered as an advocate for youth who had been abused (or) neglected.”
Hartman earned a master’s degree in teaching at College of St. Mary in Omaha and started teaching.
“I knew the first day I stepped into a classroom at Omaha South that I wanted to dedicate the rest of my career to supporting and advocating for kids,” she said.
Hartman also earned a master’s in education and doctorate in educational leadership at Creighton University.
