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The Cullman City School System welcomed a new superintendent this spring after former superintendent Susan Patterson announced her retirement last year. 

The board officially approved the hiring of Kyle Kallhoff, the former superintendent of the Demopolis City School System, at a special meeting in January, and he took over in the new role on April 1. 

“It is my pleasure to serve the community, the students, the families,” Kallhoff said at the meeting in which his hiring was approved. “You don’t have a school system doing as well as this school system if you don’t have great employees, and a lot of that is due to Dr. Patterson’s work and what she has done here in the last few years.”

Kallhoff served as the Demopolis superintendent from 2015-2021, and before that, he was the inaugural superintendent of the Chickasaw City School System in Mobile County. He was also named Superintendent of the Year for the School Superintendents of Alabama in District 2 in 2018.

Board President Chris Branham welcomed Kallhoff to the system at the meeting in which he was hired, and said the board’s members are excited to bring in someone with prior experience as a superintendent.

“I think you’re going to be a great fit for our school system, and we’re real excited,” he said. 

Patterson remained with the system until July 1 to serve in an advisory role to ease the transition, and received a send-off from the board during her last meeting as superintendent in March.  

During that meeting, board member Jason Neal wished her well in her retirement and thanked her for the guidance she has given the school system as superintendent — particularly over the past year with the difficult situation schools have been in during the COVID-19 pandemic — and thanked her for staying on for the next few months as a new superintendent takes over. 

“Thank you for all you’ve done for our system,” he said. “You’ve provided great leadership.”

Rather than interview multiple candidates for the position, the board’s opted to move quickly to hire Kallhoff after he emerged as their preferred choice. 

Board attorney Taylor Brooks, who was selected by the board to lead the search for a new superintendent after Patterson announced her retirement last September, spoke to the board about the decision-making before its members voted to approve Kallhoff.

The system received 20 applications for the position, but Kallhoff was the only one who had prior experience as a superintendent in Alabama and all five board members listed him as their number one choice, he said.

After reaching out to Kallhoff and learning that there may be other school systems looking to hire him as their superintendent, Brooks recommended the board call the special meeting and make the decision to hire Kallhoff sooner than originally planned.