Sidelight: Oskar Scheikl
September 01, 2023
Appears in September 2023: School Administrator.
With each careful fold of his parachute as he prepares to
skydive more than two miles above ground, Oskar
Scheikl is reminded of what a true crisis is. Usually, it has nothing to
do with on-the-job stressors in public school leadership. “If you are at 4,000
feet and your main parachute is not opening … it puts into perspective what we
often call a crisis,” says Scheikl, an AASA member for three years who retired
this summer as superintendent in Rockingham County, Va., and now teaches
part-time at James Madison University. A lover of extreme sports from his days
growing up in Austria, he earned his skydiving license in 2015, two years
before he was named superintendent. Says Scheikl: “In my daily work, that’s a
tremendous benefit because I just don’t get rattled easily.”
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