Editor’s Note: This is the first story in a series examining the superintendent candidates for the Eudora School District. The Eudora Times is attending each candidate’s public forum, requesting to do our own question-and-answer session with each candidate and calling references who know the candidates. Our goal is to provide one story and one Q&A for each candidate.

The first of three superintendent candidates to visit with the Eudora community has over a decade of experience serving as a superintendent under his belt. 

Darrel Kohlman, from Seneca, met with school staff and Eudora community members throughout Wednesday. Kohlman is the superintendent at Nemaha Central Schools. He’s served in the role for the past 11 years, he told community members during a meet and greet session Wednesday.

“It’s a great district — I think there’s a lot of similarities between Nemaha Central and Eudora,” Kohlman said during the session. “The obvious difference would be about three times the number of students. But the emphasis on career and tech-ed, core values, personalized learning, teacher collaboration, the early childhood program and class size — those are things that I try to drive in our current district, too.” 

There are about 600 students enrolled in Nemaha Central district’s schools and pre-school program, according to its district website. 

Nemaha Central School Board President Jason Hammes declined to comment about Kohlman while the hiring process was ongoing. Another school board member, Joe Reitz, said he wishes Nemaha Central could keep Kohlman, but declined to comment further. Calls to Nemaha Central High School’s principal, Ben Scism, for comment were not returned Wednesday. 

Kohlman also serves as Seneca’s Chamber of Commerce president, he told Eudora community members Wednesday. 

“When I got into that position, that’s when I realized, ‘Wow, for the town to be successful, we’ve got to work with the district.’ And the city also realized for the district to be successful, they had to work with us, too,” Kohlman said. 

Before his time at Nemaha Central Schools, Kohlman served as superintendent in Mullinville. Attempts to reach principals at Kohlman’s former schools in Mullinville for comment Wednesday were unsuccessful. 

Kohlman was also previously a principal at one of the schools in the Bucklin School District, a biology teacher in the Hillsboro School District and a science teacher at Twin Valley Schools. Before that, he attended Emporia State University, where he received both his bachelor’s and master’s degree. 

One of the schools in Kohlman’s current school district, Nemaha Central High School, has about 200 students, making it a 3A classification high school for grades 9-12. The school district has a graduation rate that’s over 95% most years, according to the district website. The district in total has 150 staff members. 

Comparatively, Eudora High School is a 4A school. The Eudora School District has about 250 staff members. 

This is the third superintendent job Kohlman has been a finalist for in the past three years. In 2019, he was a finalist for a superintendent job with the Salina school district. In 2020, he was a finalist with the Lansing school district. 

See our full Q&A with Kohlman here.

Reach reporters Nicole Asbury, Chris Fortune and Cami Koons at [email protected]. 

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