Westlake's Keenan named Ohio superintendent of the year

Dr. Daniel J. Keenan Jr.

Westlake City School District Superintendent Dr. Daniel J. Keenan Jr. was selected as the Ohio Superintendent of the Year for 2014 through the Buckeye Association of School Administrators.

Dr. Keenan was nominated for the award by Board of Education President Thomas Mays and Vice President Carol Winter.

“He has done exactly what we knew he would do when we hired him,” Mays said of Keenan. “He has always been available, always present and always willing to take into consideration the concerns and suggestions of the community. There are 600-plus school districts in Ohio that would be lucky to have him leading their students’ education.”
 
“He is a leader of vision, empowerment and mission," Winter said. "He hit the ground running early on in his superintendency to rally the community energy and involvement in developing our district’s strategic plans, both in our academic program and in our facilities vision. He empowers all of us on the leadership team, staff members in the entire organization, community members and students to be leaders in their own right; strengthening all aspects of the school district.
 
“Most importantly, Dr. Keenan makes our district’s mission, ‘We Educate for Excellence: Empowering all students …’ a daily reality; focusing not merely on the excellence but on providing that excellence to all Westlake students.”
 
Dr. Keenan will be honored at a Dec. 17 luncheon in Columbus. He will now compete for the American Association of School Administrators National Superintendent of the Year title.
 
Dr. Keenan joined the Westlake Schools in 2007. Prior to that he served as assistant superintendent for Kenston Local Schools, a high school administrator and director of personnel for Maple Heights City Schools, a teacher and director of guidance for Steubenville City Schools, and a junior high and elementary school teacher in the state of Indiana.
 
He earned his Ph.D. in education administration from Cleveland State University and completed graduate work for principal and assistant superintendent certification at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He earned his master’s in education administration with a gifted education emphasis, as well as his bachelor’s degree in elementary education with a secondary science certification, from Purdue University.
 
He comes from a family of educators – his father was a superintendent, his brother is superintendent of the Maple Heights School District, his mother was a university department head for undergraduate education and his wife, Heather, is the gifted coordinator for Aurora City Schools.

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Volume 5, Issue 22, Posted 10:09 AM, 10.29.2013