As busy as Andreas Johansson has been serving as the Streetsboro School District’s Director of Operations for the last seven years, he has wanted more responsibility. He will get that chance after being named the new Superintendent of the Newton Falls School District.
“I am very excited,” Johansson told The Weekly Villager. “It is certainly a step in the right direction for me, both professionally and personally. I am thrilled with the opportunity to lead Newton Falls and bring my energy, visions, and talent to this school district.”
Johansson officially begins his duties as the new superintendent at Newton Falls on Aug. 1, signing a three-year contract through July 31, 2027. He replaces former interim Superintendent Justin Christopher.
Although Johansson is beginning his career as a superintendent in a small school district, he feels it is the perfect place for him to start.
“I think it will allow me time to grow in the role of superintendent, but I have this vision I could be here for the next 15 years,” he added. “It has a great small-town feel, and it is very different culturally from Streetsboro. I think that is what the Board appreciates about me, and I do come with experience from other districts.”
Johansson earned his superintendent’s license after completing course work at Kent State University in 2020 but continued working in the Streetsboro School District. He is also finishing up his dissertation and hopes to receive his PhD sometime this fall. In the meantime, he will begin his duties in a role he has sought the last several years.
While at Streetsboro, Johansson’s primary duties were to oversee all operations of the school district such maintenance, custodial, transportation, food services and technology. In addition to making sure everything ran smoothly, he was also very hands-on, plugging in the holes by filling in as an emergency bus driver, serving food in the cafeteria or even mopping the floors. Johansson credits his tendencies to always take the initiative from the time he spent serving as a member of the National Guard for six years.
After moving to the United States from Sweden when he was 17, he enlisted in the National Guard in his final years of high school and continued serving when he attended Kent State.
“The national guard gave me a different level of discipline that has been helpful in terms of managing things and making sure stuff happens on time and making sure of where you need to be,” he noted. “You lift everyone else up and you are there for your teammates.”
After finishing his studies at Kent State with a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations & Political Science, he worked briefly in the government sector doing international business and intelligence work, but sought a different career when he realized he wanted to teach people to help them grow.
He returned to Kent State and earned a master’s degree in teaching and began his career by teaching at Fairless Middle School in Navarre but soon moved on to Nordonia and taught social studies.
When he left Nordonia, he sought a role in a school district’s central office and worked at the Lorain County Support Service Center in Elyria. He soon took over as the Director of Technology at the Kenston School District for four years before he arrived in Streetsboro.
While in Streetsboro and studying for his Superintendent’s license, Johansson helped implement several processes that helped the school district move forward.
“There is a lot of stuff on the operations side of a school district that is not documented real well: What happens is in this case? What do we have to do here? How do we solve this process? All are questions that come up. But I love constant improvements,” he noted. “I am always looking at how to make something better, faster or easier and if there is a need for a process I typically create that process.”
According to Johansson, he has already started brainstorming how to install new processes at Newton Falls before he has officially started. As much as he has moved around from school district to school district over the last two decades, Johansson acknowledged the impact that Streetsboro left on him.
“I have worked in a couple of different places but Streetsboro will always be near and dear to my heart and I will miss working with the folks there that I have close relationships with,” he said. “The benefit being that Streetsboro is still just 20 minutes down the road and we have each other’s phone number so it will not be a clean break.”
