Director of K-12 instruction for the Pella Community School District Lowell Ernst has been named the 2016 Iowa Central Office Administrator of the Year by the School Administrators of Iowa.

Superintendent Greg Ebeling tells KNIA/KRLS News Ernst has been in his position for nearly two decades, and his work is a key cog in what they do from an instructional standpoint as a district.

“If you’d talk to our teachers or our other administrators that are in the system, [they’d say] Lowell is the glue that kind of holds everything together,” Ebeling says.

According to Ebeling, Lowell’s impact expands well past Pella’s borders.

“He is involved at the state level for many, many things that happen, and has really been somebody that’s really influential in terms of how things have rolled out statewide,” Ebeling says.

Ernst was nominated by his peers and selected for the award by a committee of Iowa central office administrators. He will be honored May 13 at an awards ceremony at the State Capitol.