Thank You to One of Lower Moreland’s Finest: Dr. Davidheiser

“I do it all for the kids.” These are the powerful words from Lower Moreland High School’s very own Superintendent, Dr. Scott Davidheiser. We [Mia Dubin and Edona Selamaj], the Student Representatives to the Board of School Directors, wanted to take the time to thank Dr. Davidheiser for the incredible work that he has devoted to the student body and the school district by re-introducing him to the community he has served for six years before he says farewell and enters a new chapter: retirement. Thank you for everything, Dr. Davidheiser; we hope that you enjoy!  

To begin our interview, we asked Dr. Davidheiser if he could tell us a little bit more about himself and the jobs that he held prior to becoming the Superintendent for the Lower Moreland School District. Reflecting, he replied: “Well, I graduated from Penn State, and then I started my career in the publishing field right out of college, and I spent one year in North Carolina, and the other four years back here in Pennsylvania. I was originally in school for journalism to be a writer, but I eventually became a little dissatisfied with that field, so I eventually started coaching football at Springfield Montco. School District, and I really fell in love with working with kids. From there, I got my degree to be certified to teach students in secondary English. I started my career in education back in 1997, and I was in Phoenixville School District in Chester County, and I taught students in grades seven and eight in English Language Arts, along with one year in ninth grade English. I did that for nine years. From there, I moved into administration, and I became the assistant principal at the Phoenixville Middle School for two and a half years. From there, I shifted into the Central Bucks School District, in which I was the assistant principal at Central Bucks South High School for three and a half years, to which I shifted over to being the principal for five years. Then, in 2016, I moved into the central offices in Central Bucks, and I became the Assistant Superintendent for the secondary schools for two years. I then had the opportunity to be the Superintendent for our district for the past six years. I think that I have been in education for 28 years, and I really have enjoyed every aspect. The best part has been working with the students. Really.”

Continuing on, we asked Dr. Davidheiser if he could provide us with some fun facts about himself that others might not readily know about him, to which he readily replied: “I am actually mostly color blind. I typically lay out my clothes the night before, and the next morning I wake up, and all of my clothes change. Apparently my wife says, ‘None of these colors go well together!’, so that is a little fun fact about me. I am not completely color blind, but I really struggle with the darker colors. I can distinguish brighter colors. I can see traffic light colors and stop signs, but darker colors all sort of mesh together.” He also shared, “Let’s see, I am left-handed, which is like what? 10% of the population? That’s a pretty fun fact! I have two sisters, I am the middle child. I have one daughter, who is the artistic one in the family, and my favorite thing to do was reading Goodnight Moon to her. It was our thing! I love the movie GoodFellas. I really liked Seinfeld and Cheers. I love anything that has to do with the outside like camping and golfing! One of my favorite things to do is to go skiing. I would love to go skiing down the Alps one day. Oh, I would love to go back to Venice, Italy if I could in the blink of an eye, too.”

Next, we asked Dr. Davidheiser if he could provide us with some of his fondest memories of being the Superintendent at Lower Moreland School District, to which he answered: “As mentioned before, working with the students. Just seeing all of the good things happen when you are doing all of the hard work behind the scenes, and just really seeing it all come together, executed so well through students. You know, behind the scenes, hard stuff comes and goes, but the positive results are what really matters, especially for our students. I mean, in every level of my career, it has been for the students, which is very inspirational.”

Towards the middle of our interview, we asked Dr. Davidheiser what his proudest accomplishment being the Superintendent has been. Pondering, he replied: “I mean, of course, there’s the physical, material aspect of high school, something that has stood the test of time and can be proud of. But for me, it’s the little things, the incremental changes over time. Whether it’s small adjustments to the curriculum or the introduction of new courses like the engineering program across all three schools, these are definitely accomplishments to be proud of. I would also mention all the effort and dedication put into building the new high school; it’s an incredible project. However, I believe it’s the small, subtle things that we should really be proud of.” 

Wanting him to reflect on his time at Lower Moreland, we then asked him what he would do differently a second time around, to which he said: “We’re not so much in the school business as we are in the people business. Staying connected with people all the time is as important as anything, so if I had to do it all over again, I would focus on ways to do that more regularly. This position can become very isolating at times, so trying to connect with others and living in the moment more would be my goal.”

We then asked Dr. Davidheiser how he has changed over the course of his time here, to which he replied: “Moving into the superintendency, I had to add what I call ‘lenses.’ You have to look through every lens to see every possibility of what pitfalls there are or what benefits there are when weighing and checking every decision. In an educational system, there are different lenses that staff members must wear. The superintendent probably wears the most; there’s so much in the way of politics, personnel, finance, facilities, and I’m charged with looking through those many lenses to make some determinations. And whether that means looking at it through a problem standpoint, an idea standpoint, or just bringing people together, I have to be able to see through all those lenses. As a superintendent, you change by adding all those lenses and recognizing all of the things you may have and the gaps that exist within yourself. Once you are aware of these gaps, you can fix them by improving yourself or even utilizing the strengths of others.”

Next, since the process of choosing the next Superintendent is underway, we asked Dr. Davidheiser what advice he would give to the next person to fill his shoes, and he decisively replied:  “Stay focused on the students. If you’re making choices for students and decisions based on students’ needs, then you’re making the best choices. There’s a lot of things that sometimes become white noise that you have to deal with, but if you are focused on students, then you’re doing the right thing. Not everyone is going to like your decisions all the time, but that’s okay. If everyone likes all of your decisions all of the time, then you’re probably doing something wrong. My best advice is to do what’s best for the students and focus on making decisions in their best interest.”

Concluding our interview, we asked Dr. Davidheiser what he would advise his high school self to do if he could travel back in time, to which he said: “I would tell myself to stay open to all of the possibilities that exist. Stay young. Try not to grow up too quickly because being youthful is okay. You don’t need all of the answers and you don’t have to be right all of the time, so just take it all in and be open. Stay in the moment and don’t let things pass by too quickly. It’s okay to be young and hold on to as much of your youth as you can.”

We wanted to personally thank Dr. Davidheiser for generously allowing us to interview him for this special article. Thank you for exemplifying true role-model behavior and demonstrating a genuine work ethic through your 28 years in the field of education. We hope you enjoy the next chapter of your life and embrace every moment to the fullest. Your contributions to Lower Moreland will never go unnoticed, and your admirable career will leave a lasting legacy. Thank you once again for everything, Dr. Davidheiser!