INDIANAPOLIS — Dr. Scott Bowling, superintendent of Crawfordsville Community School Corporation, has been named 2020 Superintendent of the Year for District IV by the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents.
Winners are selected by other superintendents in their district who consider the qualifications and accomplishments of area colleagues and their instructional leadership in a time of limited resources.
Bowling has been an administrator in Crawfordsville Community School Corp. since 2002, serving as an assistant principal, principal, business manager and assistant superintendent before becoming superintendent in 2014.
Like many rural school districts, Crawfordsville Community School Corp. has faced many difficult obstacles due to limited resources.
“We focused on one key principle: maintaining excellence in our instructional programming,” Bowling said. “While other rural schools had to cut back on art and music, we set a goal to maintain support for these programs. In a time when many schools were forced to scale back honors and Advanced Placement courses, career and technical programs and electives, we actually increased our offerings in these areas.”
Bowling adds, “This didn’t happen without pain.”
The district looked at every expenditure and determined priorities. Class sizes increased, and there is now just one media specialist for the entire district instead of one in each building.
Bowling said the greatest challenge has been grappling with what to do about a middle school that had outlived its useful life.
“I knocked on doors and was able to share with neighbors that I was once the principal at this school,” he said. “I knew first-hand about the quality of instructions that was occurring in this building. The great instruction I saw on a daily basis deserved a roof that didn’t leak and adequate technology to provide students with 21st century stills.”
At a time when money was not easy to come by, the community supported a referendum to build a new school by an 80 percent margin.
“Our community made a critical investment in our shared future,” Bowling said.
Bowling earned a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, a post-graduate degree in secondary math education from Indiana University and three educational administration degrees from Ball State University. He is currently the president of the Indiana Association of School Business Officials. Bowling also serves on the Mayor’s Countywide Workforce Roundtable and he is a past board member of Character Counts of Montgomery County.
District IV includes, Benton, Clay, Fountain, Greene, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Owen, Parke, Putnam, Sullivan, Tippecanoe, Vermillion, Vigo and Warren counties.