Support the Timberjay by making a donation.

Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Sup’t search commences in Ely

Knife Chief hired as acting superintendent as district seeks replacement

Keith Vandervort
Posted 7/2/15

ELY – The Ely School District is looking for an interim part-time superintendent for the 2015-16 school year.

In the meantime, the school board hired Theresa Knife Chief last Friday to serve as …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Sup’t search commences in Ely

Knife Chief hired as acting superintendent as district seeks replacement

Posted

ELY – The Ely School District is looking for an interim part-time superintendent for the 2015-16 school year.

In the meantime, the school board hired Theresa Knife Chief last Friday to serve as acting superintendent until an interim administrator can be found.

Knife Chief was the superintendent of ISD 2142 St. Louis County Schools from 2011-2014, and ISD 707 Nett Lake School from 2004 to 2011. She has been a substitute teacher for the past year.

At a special meeting, on June 22, Ely school directors were deadlocked on whether to replace former full-time superintendent Alexis Leitgeb with a full- or part-time administrator and reconvened later in the week to resolve the issue when director Scott Kellerman returned from vacation.

On advice from the Minnesota School Board Association, Ely school directors agreed to search for an interim superintendent for the upcoming school year and hope to have a permanent superintendent in place next summer.

“We want to do a good search and maybe have a full-time superintendent in place by July 2016,” said Board Chairman Ray Marsnik. “This is what most school districts do.”

The list of available part-time superintendents is much larger than available full-time administrators, Marsnik noted. “Most of the part-time superintendents are retired and they like the flexibility of maybe only working four days a week. “It will be easier to get a part-time administrator,” he said.

The proposed timeline calls for an application deadline of July 9 and to have the interim superintendent on the job by the end of the month.

“In my 13 years of experience on the board, we’ve had previous part-time superintendents who came in and did a good job for us,” Marsnik said. “I’m not going to say that part-time is better than full-time, but this is what we have to decide.”

Given the small window for getting an administrator in place, one school director, Rochelle Sjoberg, questioned the need for an acting superintendent. “Let’s move to start the search for an interim superintendent immediately,” she said.

She voted against hiring Knife Chief, who was the sole applicant, as acting superintendent The contract calls for Knife Chief to work eight to 10 hours per week at $50 per hour for a minimum of 30 days.

“By law, we need a superintendent,” Marsnik said. “I think we need to have someone in place. I don’t think this could operate very well without a superintendent in place now.”

Paul Pengal, who said last week that he favored a full-time interim superintendent “regardless of the dollars,” changed his mind and said he is favor of taking a hard look at the duties and the costs of the top administrator.

He supported a motion by Sjoberg to search for an interim part-time administrator for the 2015-2016 school year. The position will not include Community Education, Title 1 or Information Technology responsibilities. The motion passed unanimously.

Kellerman said it was his hope that they find someone “with a lot of experience.” He also asked about how many hours the part-time superintendent would actually be working.

In the past, part-time superintendents in the district worked two or three days per week. “Previous contracts made no assumption as to how much time was spent in Ely,” said the district’s legal counsel, Kelly Klun, “only that they were responsible to fulfill the duties of the position.

Contract parameters and an employment contract will be negotiated with the finalist selected to fill the position.

School Directors agreed on at least five years experience and the following six qualifications for the superintendent position: act honestly and in an ethical manner in dealings with the School Board, staff and community; be familiar with state and federal education laws; delegate authority while maintaining accountability; have thorough knowledge of and successful experience in school district management practices; have a thorough knowledge of and successful experience in school finance; and work cooperatively with the School Board and provide options and recommendations.