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Elkhart schools superintendent to step down at end of school year

Steve Thalheimer
Elkhart Community Schools
Steve Thalheimer

Elkhart Community Schools Superintendent Steve Thalheimer has announced resignation, which will take effect at the end of the school year.

In a statement released Friday afternoon, Thalheimer said that his decision to leave was driven by matters of personal wellness and was something that he and his family had discussed a lot over the holidays.

“The challenges the environment around public schools, COVID, and working to heal a district that needed attention paid to individual and institutional health have placed a lot of demands on me and my family,” Thalheimer said in an email to staff following the release.

Thalheimer said his focus over the next five months will be to promote and complete the district’s feasibility study so the board has options to pursue with a new leader.

Elkhart School Board President Dacey Davis thanked Thalheimer for his service and said the board will immediately begin the process of finding a successor.

Thalheimer has been superintendent of Elkhart Community Schools since January 2019.

Elkhart Community Schools is the licensee of WVPE.

Tony became WVPE's program director in 2022, after working as operations manager since 2014. He also produces Michiana Chronicles and works on other special programming and digital projects. He joined the station as All Things Considered host in 1997, hosted Morning Edition in 2000 and 2001, then returned to the ATC host chair from 2007 to 2016. One of his Morning Edition newscasts earned WVPE a Best Radio Newscast Award from the Associated Press in 2002. An Iowa native, Tony got his start in radio as a student at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), Harrisonburg, Va., and managed the radio station there for three years after graduating. He also worked in commercial and Christian radio prior to his time at WVPE. Tony lives in Goshen.