Sidelight: Oskar Scheikl

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.”