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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Wanted: More sup’t candidates for ISD 696

Keith Vandervort
Posted 7/23/15

ELY – School Board members in Ely want more time to talk to more applicants for the vacant superintendent position. Directors interviewed the district’s acting administrator, Theresa Knife Chief, …

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Wanted: More sup’t candidates for ISD 696

Posted

ELY – School Board members in Ely want more time to talk to more applicants for the vacant superintendent position. Directors interviewed the district’s acting administrator, Theresa Knife Chief, on Monday night, and decided to repost the position.

A second applicant, George Linthicum, of Arlee, Mont., declined the offer to be interviewed for the position.

Following Knife Chief’s session, in which she answered 19 questions from the board, Director Rochelle Sjoberg praised her responses to the questions, but said she does not want to be in a hurry “just to be filling this position.”

Sjoberg had reservations about Knife Chief’s lack of experience in supervising at the high school level. “Her biggest strength is at the K-6 level, but we do also have the high school. I would have a difficult time basing this (hiring) off of just one interview.”

She suggested adjusting the qualifications for the position from having a required five years of superintendent experience to preferring experience in the position. “While having the five years experience is important to this board, for this interim position, it may be difficult to get candidates willing to relocate here knowing it will be for just one year,” she said.

She asked to change the qualifications and advertise the position for another week.

One applicant was disqualified from consideration because of the lack of experience.

“I can give you a lot of examples where principals moved into a superintendent position,” said Board Chairman Ray Marsnik. “We did it twice here with our last two principals. They had no superintendent experience. Gilbert and Hermantown just filled from within.”

Marsnik admitted that changing the qualifications for the position might not make much of a difference in terms of getting more interest for the job. “I don’t think that we are going to get anybody from far away that is going to want to move up here for a year. I think it is going to have to be some one from our area that can commute on a daily basis.”

Director Scott Kellerman was in favor of hiring Knife Chief. “I could give her an opportunity. That’s my feeling right now. I don’t think it is fair to string her along. She has a job that she likes. What message does that (re-advertising the position) give to her?”

Knife Chief lives on the Bois Forte Reservation near Tower and works for the tribe as a family support coordinator. Previously she was superintendent for St. Louis County Schools - ISD 2142, and Nett Lake schools. She holds a current superintendent’s license with the state.

Sjoberg asserted her point of wanting to interview more applicants. “I think that is just doing due diligence on our part,” she said.

Director James Pointer also was in favor of interviewing more candidates. “One year can be crucial to the advancement of our district.”

Marsnik said he was in favor of hiring Knife Chief for the interim position and starting the process of immediately looking for a permanent part-time superintendent. “She has the experience. They had a $20 million budget over there,” he said. “I think that she is a person that can work with people. Leadership is a big thing with me.”

Director Kathy Udovich said she was in favor of the district’s next superintendent having experience. “At first, we were adamant that we wanted experience, but now we seem to be waffling on that issue. It is important that we have someone with experience, whoever it ends up being.”

Sjoberg argued that she wanted a bigger applicant pool “so we have a comparison, so we are not interviewing (one) candidate and making a decision.”

She made a motion, which was supported by Pointer, to advertise again for the position, for seven days, with no prior experience required.

Marsnik revealed that he received information from a retired administrator who lives in the Ely area. “This person is very interested in the position. This individual does not have five years of experience, although he has tremendous strengths in curriculum, assessment and technology,” he said. “Since retirement, he did that type of work for area (school) districts. He has a superintendent’s license and lots of principal experience, and I think he would apply.”

The motion to repost the interim superintendent position, with the change in qualification, was passed on a 3-2 vote. Marsnik and Kellerman voted no. Director Paul Pengal was not present.

Hockey coach

Marsnik broke the stalemate among board members concerning the varsity hockey coach position by agreeing to re-advertise for the position.

Last week, board members could not agree on a resolution. They tied on votes to re-hire Kurt Mattila as head coach and to re-advertise the position.

Mattila’s contract was not renewed this spring.

“We have to move forward on this,” he said. “If we are going to have a hockey program this year we need to get this resolved. In the past, I went with the recommendation of our administration. It was recommended by our athletic director that Mattila be re-assigned to his position.”

He said he would agree with posting for the position again, “as long as Kurt Mattila has an equal opportunity to apply for this position and that he will be treated like any other candidate.”

He also recommended, in lieu of the stalemate, that no board members take part in the interviewing process. He favored having the administration pick the hiring committee for screening, interviewing and presenting a recommendation to the board.

Udovich made that motion with Kellerman’s support. The motion passed on a 4-1 vote. Sjoberg voted no.

Athletic Director

On a unanimous vote, the board voted to hire Thomas Coombe as the district’s new athletic director.

The part-time position will start with a $16.40 per hour wage for a minimum of 24 hours per week, or 1,128 hours per year ($18,500 annual compensation).

The non-contract, salaried position will not pay overtime for hours in excess of 40 hours in a given workweek.

The position will include a six-month review to be conducted by the 6-12 principal.

Coombe agreed and started his duties this week with training sessions. Generally, he will work Aug. 1 through the third week in June each school year.