Wrenshall superintendent search to start with survey

The Wrenshall school board agreed in a special meeting Wednesday to survey community members before posting the district’s open superintendent position.

“I don’t think we can rush this,” board member Misty Bergman said. “We don’t even know what we’re looking for.”

Superintendent Kim Belcastro announced her retirement in January after 11 years in the job. She and the board agreed to keep her on part-time through the end of the school year to maintain leadership in the school and administer to the business of the school.

Belcastro and some board members weighed posting the job as soon as possible, in both half-time and full-time variations, to begin soliciting applications.

Instead, the board agreed to table the posting, and instead produce a survey that will go out in the coming days. Parents, community members, students, staff, and teachers will all be encouraged to share their ideas about what they want in the next superintendent, and how often they want that person around, either full-time or half.

Belcastro had been doing the job using 60 percent of full-time hours until her resignation and retirement, after which she dropped to half-time. The difference is three full days a week at the school versus two along with a partial workday from home. The district welcomed the cost savings as it’s in the midst of $300,000 in budget cuts due to declining enrollment and a subsequent reduction in state funding.

Board member Mary Carlson said that knowing what the community wanted was “paramount.”

But an argument was made that the job could be posted, letting the quality of applicants also drive the discussion.

“We’ve really got to get it posted,” said board member Alice Kloepfer.

But Bergman countered, arguing for time. She’s the head of the school board search committee in charge of looking for a new superintendent.

It wouldn’t be too late to begin interviews in March or April, she said.

“If we’re a couple weeks behind, that’s OK,” she said. Bergman also noted the prospect of an interim superintendent if the search doesn’t yield results. She noted how the state features a healthy pool of candidates to perform interim administrative work of a superintendent.

She estimated a survey could begin producing results shortly after launching. She also posited the prospect of a live listening session with community members. Not all of the community input needed to be done in time to approve a job posting at the board’s Feb. 14 meeting, the board said.

In the end, the board preferred a round of community input over racing to post the job opening. The survey will go home in students’ backpacks and will also be shared online on the school’s website.

“Let’s see what is wanted and then we post,” board chair Nicole Krisak said, to the satisfaction of the rest of the board.