July/August 2024
Over the past six years, Carmel Monthly has had the privilege of working with Dr. Michael Beresford and reporting on issues affecting the Carmel Clay School district. As Dr. Beresford completes his final mile as CCS superintendent during the 2024-25 school year, our editorial staff thought it appropriate to reflect on some of his key milestones.
A Look Back at the Last Six Years
After six years at CCS, Beresford is wrapping up his 43 years in education. Beresford has been instrumental in advancing academic excellence, fostering a safe and inclusive school environment, implementing innovative educational programs, updating facilities and adding supports to enrich the learning experience for students and families across the district
“No superintendent can accomplish anything by themselves, especially in a big district,” Beresford expressed. “It’s about collaboration and bringing in the right people to the team. I’m proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish in six years. It’s been an interesting path, but the secret sauce of Carmel is we’ve got good kids that come prepared for school because that’s the expectation of the parents, and then you put that with the talented staff. That’s one of [the administration’s] jobs: to work hard at finding the best of the best, to develop the best of the best and then to support the best of the best so that the magic can happen in the classroom.”
Going into the 2018-19 school year, following the previous [school] year’s Noblesville school shooting, Dr. Michael Beresford was new to the Carmel Clay Schools district. Aware of the concerns among parents, faculty and community members, Beresford quickly acclimated to the school community and familiarized himself with the needs and strengths of each school within the district.
“I came into a situation where I’m learning this district on the fly, and the immediate focus was how safe are our schools,” Beresford recalled. “We immediately began working on beefing up our security and worked on strengthening our access points in all the buildings. We hired David Woodward as director of student services, who had run the school safety specialist academy for the state for years. We were fortunate to be able to get Dave.”
Beresford continued, “I remember we had a school safety town hall presentation and I met a group of moms, [whom] I call the ‘safety moms.’ They were really well-informed and had done their research, and they helped to pass the safety referendum. Because of these moms and all the parents working together, we are able to have one SRO [school resource officer] in every building and contract with mental health services that reduce barriers and provide services … which turned out to be right on time because of the pandemic. We were the first [district] to pass a safety referendum, and we’ve continued to add layer after layer, getting better and better so that we can do our best to keep our kids safe.”
CCS launched a rebranding project from 2018-20 that was a collaborative effort between CHS DECA students for the tagline and student artists for the logo.
“I got this idea to have the kids do it instead of hiring a company,” Beresford shared. “The DECA kids zeroed in on when we say ‘Carmel Clay Schools,’ what’s the best way to capture that in just a few words, and that’s where ‘Together We Achieve’ came from. The art students submitted their three best logos, and [this] one is now our current logo. It was a total student-led project and was a lot of fun.”
Beresford could never have predicted that during his 43 years in education, he would have to contend with a global pandemic and face the challenge of guiding the entire school district through unprecedented circumstances without a handbook on the subject.
“There was no handbook for superintendents, governors, state legislators or anybody,” Beresford said. “To be fair, I don’t believe anybody really knew what we were getting into and how deadly or not deadly it would be. I couldn’t be prouder of our CCS team in the way that we worked together with the rules we were given, following protocols in a way that kept the school in a consistent place. My takeaway and memory of all that is always going to be, how did we do that? I do know we kept our focus on doing the best we could within the rules —that kept changing—for our kids.”
Passing the Baton
The CCS Board of Trustees exemplified a forward-thinking approach to executing one of its most significant responsibilities: selecting the next superintendent of schools. The board named Dr. Thomas Oestreich, the current assistant superintendent of staff and student services, to this pivotal role. Oestreich will maintain his current duties while working closely with Beresford this year before assuming the role of superintendent in July 2025.
“The learning curve is already in place, so Dr. Oestreich is already more informed about the district than I was when I started,” Beresford stated. “When I finish my last mile here at CCS, I want the district in a place where Dr. Oestreich and the team that we’ve built here will have everything they need to continue to do the good work here. I will walk away feeling pretty good about the time spent here, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds. It’s been a real blessing, and it’s something that I will always cherish.”
When asked what the immediate future looks like once he has officially retired, Beresford said, “My first job will be to figure out what I’m going to do post-retirement. I’m really interested in service dogs, and I can’t see myself not being involved with that either through ICAN [Indiana Canine Assistance Network] or some other organization. As his handler, Jim Dandee [current service dog] and I will still be visiting schools and hospitals … wherever a little dog magic would help. I won’t be too far away and will try to help when help is needed.”
