Bradley Buck
Governor Branstad has chosen a central Iowa superintendent to run the Iowa Department of Education. Forty-four-year-old Brad Buck has been the superintendent at Saydel Schools in rural Polk County for the past two years.
He’s leaving the 1,300 student school district to take over as Iowa Department of Education director sometime in the next four weeks, replacing Jason Glass who left the job to become a superintendent in a Colorado ski resort community.
The new education director worked as a school administrator in Waukee, Hudson and North Mahaska school districts for about 14 years before becoming Saydel’s superintendent.
His first job as an educator was at Parkview Middle School in Ankeny in 1992. He was a science teacher. According to a statement from the governor, Buck as a “head start on understanding” how to implement the education reform package legislators passed this spring.
The Saydel district Buck has been leading secured a federal grant last year to plan for its new teacher leadership system that’s being implemented in Saydel when school starts later this month. Buck and his wife live in Urbandale. They have six children.