Budzilek to leave for challenges outside public education
by Dan Rzewnicki, Editor in Chief
May 27, 2011
Calling the move a calculated risk yet a chance he is willing to take, Leechburg’s superintendent Dr. James Budzilek will be leaving the district after a 25-year career in public education. The Leechburg Area School Board accepted his resignation at its monthly meeting May 25 with his official departure scheduled for Aug. 2.
Budzilek has accepted two positions, one as Director of Technology Education for PittBull Secure Technologies centered in Johnstown, Pa., and the other as an educational consultant for ConnectED.
Budzilek said he still wrestles with this decision every day, wondering if is he’s doing the right thing since his Leechburg roots are deep. He is a Leechburg graduate who returned to his alma mater from a 16-year career as a science teacher and assistant principal at Knoch High School. He has served this district for the past nine years, first as the high school principal and then as superintendant.
Budzilek said this change is an opportunity he could not pass up. “I don’t want to live my life and in five years wonder what would have happened,” he said. ”I don’t want to say coulda, woulda, shoulda. I know this is something new and different and I would like to give it a try.”
Budzilek’s new positions will keep him in contact with all areas of education, he said, including public, private, cyber and charter schools. However, he said he will miss the daily contact with students.
“I will miss working with students, especially those in elementary because they always have big smiles on their faces,” Budzilek said. But helping individual junior and senior high school students with their own struggles and showing them the importance of an education was his greatest accomplishment as a teacher and as a principal, he said. “I try to be very visible in the school district. It’s a small school district,” he said, “and I get to know everybody.”
In his years as a Leechburg administrator, Budzilek said he is most proud of the technology that Leechburg has been able to provide for the students. He said he is also glad he was able to create some online and new classes to provide students with new opportunities. While at Leechburg, he said he was fortunate to have been surrounded with good teachers who helped to move his educational vision forward, especially in the area of technology.
Facing the challenge of operating a small district, as superintendent Budzilek said he found himself trying to be more creative. “Public education is getting beaten up today with so many people picking on public education,” he said. “To keep a smaller system like Leechburg going, you need to be very creative when you sit in this chair.”
The new superintendent, Budzilek said of his successor, will need to be creative and careful, two attributes that are keeping Leechburg alive as a school district. He advised the new superintendent to “always put students first, fight for the students and do your best for the students so you can go to sleep at night and know you did the right thing.”
When asked about the possibility of Leechburg’s merging and the rumors that he may be abandoning a sinking ship, Budzilek laughed and said that merging rumors were circulating when he was sitting in the classroom at Leechburg 33 years ago. “Back then the rumor was we were merging with Kiski,” he said.
This district has managed to fight through the difficult times, Budzilek said, because it is a unique combination of staff, school board and community that wants to keep a small district. “Everyone likes a smaller school,” he said, “as long as we remember the No. 1 rule – to educate students.”
However, he did not deny that merging somewhere down the road may be inevitable because the district needs to stay current and face challenges which may someday cost more than the district can bear. “The district still has challenges to face,” he said. “What they will have to decide is at what cost.”
While Budzilek has jumped at this opportunity to try something new, he did not close the door on returning to public education or to Leechburg. “I could come back to public education in a couple of years,” he said. “And Mark George has asked me to join his staff as an assistant football coach this coming year, so maybe you’ll be seeing me more than you think.”
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