Wrenshall leads in superintendent scramble

A sort of musical chairs has come to the region’s schools this year as several open superintendent positions are scheduled to be filled in the coming days and months.

Barnum, Moose Lake and Wrenshall, along with nearby McGregor and Proctor, are all in the market for new leaders atop their district administrations.

Wrenshall appears closest to filling its superintendent post, scheduling a round of community-led interviews next week after the school board narrowed its candidate list to two on Monday.

“We’re currently out ahead of those other searches, and we want to keep it that way,” Wrenshall board chair Mary Carlson said. “We are not going to be sitting around with as many superintendent positions open as there is. We want the candidate we want.”

Wrenshall teachers, students and community members will conduct a panel interview of the candidates beginning at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the school commons, with a representative from each group asking questions of finalists Frank Schill, of North Dakota, and Tom Rich, of Wisconsin. Both men tout more than 20 years of superintendent experience.

Superintendent searches are largely public affairs, meaning other districts may see and seek to interview some of the same candidates Wrenshall sought for its half-time superintendent post.

“We really considered keeping all four candidates for the second round,” Carlson said. “The process worked super-well and everyone was so impressive. They’re absolutely a fantastic, high-caliber group.”

Meanwhile, Barnum and Willow River’s shared superintendent, Bill Peel, is applying for the open Moose Lake position, with the aim of bringing the Moose Lake and Willow River districts together academically. The schools already cooperate for sports.

Moose Lake posted its opening in December and continues to accept applications, interim superintendent John Engstrom confirmed.

Peel told the Pine Knot News that Barnum/Willow River business manager Laura Carlson is also applying for the same role at Moose Lake.

“We do not know if Moose Lake is interested in this arrangement, but we feel that we would try, given the relationship between the two districts with the established sports cooperative,” Peel said.

Barnum is being proactive, Peel added, posting for the superintendent and business manager positions in case it loses Peel and Carlson to Moose Lake.

“If we are not hired at Moose Lake, the business manager and I can reapply for Barnum’s position as shared staff,” Peel said. “It would be up to Barnum to consider hiring us again.”

Willow River has not posted for potential openings. Peel and Carlson are scheduled to remain employed there when the new school calendar year starts July 1. But that wouldn’t be ideal, Peel said.

“We both hope this will not be the case,” Peel said. “We know smaller rural districts cannot or struggle to afford to employ full-time superintendents.”

District leaders and school board members from across the state converged on Minneapolis this week for the annual Minnesota School Boards Association Leadership Conference.

There, amidst all of the networking, folks figure to learn that Proctor superintendent Kerry Juntunen plans to retire from the district at the end of his contract in June. But, he’s “not ruling out any other superintendent positions in the future,” he said.

When the Wrenshall’s board returns for Round 2 of superintendent interviews next week, it figures to act quickly. Following the community round of interviewing, the board will likely go into closed session for negotiation strategy, Carlson said.

“The goal,” Carlson added, “is to walk out of that meeting with our candidate.”