Edward Schoenfelt

School Board Consulting for Northwest Indiana Districts

When a school board stops working, everyone in the district feels it. The superintendent feels it first, staff feel it next, but students feel it the longest. I help Indiana school boards get back to the work they were elected to do.

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Years in Public Education

Million Saved for Northwest Indiana Schools

%

Voter Approval on a Tax Levy He Helped Pass

%

Districts Kept Out Of State Takeover

An Outside Voice Who’s Already Sat in Your Chair

Most consultants who show up to talk about school board governance have never run a district, never sat through a levy campaign, and never had to tell a board president something they didn’t want to hear.

I’ve done all three.

Forty-seven years in public education took me from high school principal to superintendent to executive director of the Northwest Indiana Education Service Center. I’ve built budgets, negotiated with unions, defended referendums to skeptical taxpayers, and watched good boards go sideways over things that had nothing to do with kids.

That last part is why I do this work. Board dysfunction is rarely about bad people. Almost always, it’s about unclear roles, weak protocols, and nobody willing to name the problem out loud.

I’ll name it. Then we’ll fix it together.

Edward Schoenfelt

How I Work With School Boards

School Board Governance Training
Boards work best when every member understands where their authority begins and where it ends. I run practical governance training built around the difference between governing and managing. The single most common source of friction between a board and its superintendent. Sessions are built for your board, not delivered from a binder.
Board Retreats & Strategic Planning
A well-run retreat resets a board for the entire year. We’ll set priorities, agree on goals you can actually measure, and build a strategic plan the whole team owns. As an outside facilitator, I handle the agenda, the materials, and the hard conversations. This frees your board president and superintendent to participate instead of moderate.
Board Self-Evaluation & Superintendent Evaluation
Annual evaluations go badly when they’re improvised. I help boards build a fair, defensible process for both board self-evaluation and superintendent evaluation, one grounded in agreed-upon goals, so the conversation is about performance instead of personality.
Resolving Board Dysfunction and Conflict
Split votes, leaked executive sessions, members campaigning instead of governing, a superintendent updating their résumé. When a board reaches this point, it rarely recovers on its own. I work with boards in genuine conflict to rebuild operating protocols, restore trust, and get the focus back on students.
New Board Member Orientation
Indiana doesn’t require training for newly elected school board members. That leaves new trustees learning budgets, policy, open-meetings law, and their own job description on the fly, usually in public. I build orientation programs that get new members productive in their first ninety days instead of their second year.
Referendum and Community Communication
Passing a referendum takes more than a good cause. It takes a board that speaks with one voice, understands the line between informing voters and campaigning, and can explain school finance in plain English at a kitchen table. I’ve been on the winning side of that campaign and I’ve seen what sinks the ones that fail.

Serving School Corporations Across Northwest Indiana

Northwest Indiana isn’t a market I picked off a map. It’s where I’ve spent the back half of my career.

As Executive Director of the Northwest Indiana Education Service Center, I coordinated collaborative purchasing that saved member school corporations more than $35 million, served as the official LEA for the Lake County Safe School Commission, and staffed the Northwest Indiana Superintendents’ Study Council. Before that, I directed a federal grant program across three districts and helped keep two Northwest Indiana high schools out of state takeover.

I know these districts. I know the funding pressures, the enrollment shifts, and the politics because I’ve worked inside them.

Counties served: Lake · Porter · LaPorte · Newton · Jasper · Starke · Pulaski

Communities include:

  • Merrillville
  • Valparaiso
  • Crown Point
  • Portage
  • Chesterton
  • Michigan City
  • Munster
  • Highland
  • Hobart
  • Schererville
  • St. John
  • Griffith
  • Lowell
  • Dyer
  • LaPorte
  • Hammond
  • Gary

What Colleagues Say

“I recommend Mr. Schoenfelt with complete confidence and support. He has a complete understanding of the needs of K-12 education over the entire array of needs — from financing, purchasing, professional development, and policy making.”

Dr. Lux

Retired Superintendent, Merrillville Community School Corporation

“It has been my privilege to have worked with Ed Schoenfelt for nearly 40 years as a student, teacher, principal, and superintendent in public education. He has been the most influential mentor, role model, colleague, and friend in my career.”

Darin Powell

Superintendent, Western Community Unit School District #12

“He has a strong commitment to public schools and to local governance of public education. Ed is not only an accomplished professional in the field of education; he is also a person of tremendous integrity.”

Bret Ghan

Deputy Executive Director, Missouri School Boards' Association

“Through the years, I have watched Ed take on many challenges outside of his particular job at the time. Ed Schoenfelt is a man of his word. If he says he believes something strongly, believe it. If he says he will do something, it’s done.”

Mark Mills

Sr. Marketing Consultant, Cumulus Radio Station Group

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Common Questions

What does a school board consultant actually do?

A school board consultant works with the board as a governing body rather than with individual administrators. That includes facilitating retreats, running governance training, guiding board and superintendent evaluations, mediating conflict, and helping boards build protocols that hold up under pressure.

Is school board training required in Indiana?

No. Indiana does not mandate training for elected school board members, before or after taking office. Boards that pursue it do so because they’ve decided governance is worth getting right, not because a rule says so.

Our board isn't in crisis. Is consulting still worth it?

Often it’s more valuable. Boards that invest in protocols, clear roles, and a solid evaluation process before trouble arrives tend not to have the trouble. Prevention costs less than repair, in money and in community trust.

How long does an engagement take?

It depends on the work. A single retreat or training session runs a few hours. A governance assessment with follow-through typically spans three to twelve months. We’ll define the scope together before anything begins.

Do you work with boards outside Northwest Indiana?

Northwest Indiana is home and the primary focus. Districts elsewhere in Indiana are welcome to reach out, the first conversation is free either way.

Let's Talk About Your Board

The first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Tell me what's happening with your board, and I'll tell you honestly whether I'm the right person to help.

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