Former Brecksville-Broadview Heights Administrator Ready to Start New Job as Twinsburg Superintendent

Editor's Note: This article was featured on Thursday, July 28 on the Brecksville Patch.

Last week, Kathryn Powers spent her last day in the Brecksville-Broadview Heights City School District. 

Powers, the district’s former director of human resources, is moving on to become the . 

July 20 was her last day in the Brecksville-Broadview Heights schools. Her contract in Twinsburg officially begins there on Aug. 1, but Powers said she planned to start on Monday. She had already taken some vacation time to get to know the new district, and she spent some time helping her replacement in Brecksville-Broadview Heights get ready. 

“It’s that kind of transition time for me,” Powers said on her last day in Brecksville-Broadview Heights. 

Richard Evans will be taking over Powers’ job. Evans had been working as the district’s supervisor of special education for the past two years, and spent more than 10 years working in the district as a teacher, coach and administrator in the ‘80s and ‘90s. 

“This district’s always kind of been like home,” Evans said. 

He said he had been working with Powers on the transition and that he appreciated what she did for the district. She “really took her role to heart here,” he said. 

Powers said she believes life presents opportunities to people, and that she’s always stayed open-minded and looking for the next challenge. She offers a lot of credit to former Brecksville-Broadview Heights superintendent Tom Diringer, who she worked with early in her career and calls a mentor. A lot of success is due to people who “see something in you along the way,” she said. 

Powers started her education career as a teacher at St. Monica School in Garfield Heights — the parochial school she attended as a child — and the Maple Heights schools. She then went on to work in administrative positions in the Maple Heights, Bedford and South Euclid Lyndhurst school districts before coming to Brecksville-Broadview Heights. 

Powers worked in the district for three years. She said the job in human resources gave her experience in working on contract negotiations that she didn’t have before. She was also able to work on staff development. While she said it was a difficult three years — there have been many budget cuts during that time — she enjoyed working with everyone. She said the staff really wants to help the students in the district, and the students excel with the help of their parents and the staff.

“It’s all about the people,” she said.  

In her new job, the Twinsburg resident said she has a few main goals. She wants to continue the relationship between the district and the different communities it serves, help residents understand the district’s financial situation and encourage its academic success.

And she’s pleased with how she’s leaving the Brecksville-Broadview Heights schools. 

“I leave feeling really good about the work that’s been done,” she said.