Next Alburnett Superintendent Will Dible to ‘hit the ground running’

ALBURNETT — As the next superintendent of the Alburnett Community School District, Will Dible already is enthusiastic about the kids, families and community.

Dible, 37, said he will enjoy working on the single-building campus where the district’s administrative offices and K-12 classrooms are housed. “When I’m needing a kid fix, I can walk out of my office and into the classrooms,” he said.

Dible — who was unanimously approved for the job by the Alburnett school board — will begin work effective Saturday in the 700-student district in northern Linn County. He’s moving to the community from Spencer — about 240 miles away — with his wife, Jenna Dible, and their three children: Mason, 7, a rising second-grader, Sullivan, 5, who will be in alternative kindergarten this year, and Estelle, 3, who will attend preschool in the fall. His salary will be $150,000 a year, plus benefits.

This will be the first superintendent position for Dible, and it will be “big learning curve,” he said.

He studied secondary education at the University of Iowa. Initially, he was studying chemistry, but when an education class he took was “the most fun” he had ever taken, he switched majors.

“It’s been a very fulfilling career,” Dible said. “The kids drive you nuts sometimes, but they are fantastic.”

Dible was principal of Spencer High School in the 2,200-student school district for two years. Before that, he was the district’s director of school improvement, where he focused on curriculum and instruction, professional development, data analysis and human resources. Dible also has experience as a high school science teacher and instructional coach.

His experience at Spencer schools has “done a great job” preparing him to be Alburnett’s superintendent, Dible said.

With his background in human resources, Dible said he also will heavily emphasize recruitment and retention of staff in Alburnett. While he is not aware of staff shortages in the school district right now, he said educators across the state are in “short supply.”

“The number of applicants we have for a position is minuscule compared to five to 10 years ago,” he said.

While at Spencer schools, Dible began a project-based program called No Boundaries, modeled after the Cedar Rapids-based Iowa BIG. The Iowa BIG program challenges high school students to team up with businesses. This gives its students the ability to learn and use real-world skills such as leadership, accountability and teamwork on projects about which they are passionate, while earning high school credit.

An Iowa BIG satellite location opened in Alburnett for the first time at the start of the 2021-22 school year. While students in the Alburnett Community School District have had the option of enrolling in Iowa BIG in the past, they had to travel to Cedar Rapids.

Dible said he was attracted to Alburnett schools because he believes small schools can “give you a very well-rounded education.” He is looking forward to learning the “values” of the community and how the community and school district can better support each other, he said.

Under his leadership, Alburnett schools will complete a building project made possible when voters passed a $11.5 million bond issue in March 2020.

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As a part of the project, the district has remodeled its culinary, industrial technology and business and agriculture program classrooms. Other projects are the completion of an auditorium, music rooms and a multipurpose building with a gym. The current gym in the original Alburnett school building is being remodeled to add eight classrooms.

To finance the projects, voters approved a measure allowing the district’s property tax levy rate to exceed $2.70 per $1,000 of assessed taxable value, but not to exceed $4.05. The school board also authorized use of the district’s portion of an existing 1-cent sales tax for schools to add up to $3.4 million to the bond financing.

Alburnett school board President Jason Martin said Dible is a “really good fit” for the district. Current Superintendent Dani Trimble “did a very nice job” of putting the district in a financially stable position that will contribute to its success, Martin said.

Trimble, who is resigning effective Friday, will become superintendent of the Ballard Community School District in Huxley in central Iowa. Trimble has led the Alburnett district for more than a decade.

“Will is going to have to hit the ground running,” Martin said. “We have to finish up our building project, there is new legislation in Des Moines we need to address and we’re getting in to 3DE” — a curriculum created with Junior Achievement to create equitable access to high quality education through public-private partnerships that better reflect the real world and prepare students for life beyond the classroom walls.

Junior Achievement is a national nonprofit that teaches students work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com