VIRGINIA — ISD 2142 school board members began early discussions Tuesday on how to find a new superintendent, as longtime leader Reggie Engebritson prepares to retire at the end of the school year.
For the past eight years, ISD 2142 has shared Engebritson with the much smaller Mt. Iron-Buhl (MI-B) district, with MI-B paying roughly 20 percent of her salary and benefits for her to serve as its superintendent as well.
The partnership was created for funding considerations and cost savings, and it is technically separate from Engebritson’s individual contract. It just so happens that her retirement coincides with the end of the current agreement. While the two districts could choose to continue partnering in other ways, the superintendent vacancy is the primary factor now driving whether to continue the arrangement.
“This is an opportunity, whenever the decision’s been made, to get a posting out there or decide if you’re going to do the search on your own,” Engebritson said.
Partnership under review
Board members quickly raised the central question: Should ISD 2142 seek a superintendent of its own or continue the shared model?
“It could be tougher to find a superintendent for two districts versus one big district,” board member Jarett Bundy said. “Maybe they want to take that on afterwards, but currently it might be they only want to take on the St. Louis County district.”
Board member Chris Koivisto agreed the board needs to weigh the impact on the candidate pool.
“We’re paying competitive wages, so we should be able to attract superintendents to the job. The question is at what level are we going to get the most qualified candidates to apply to get the best we can find,” he said.
Koivisto noted the district has multiple schools and facilities already, making the job significant on its own.
Engebritson said she believes the partnership has functioned well and has provided financial benefits to both sides.
“I haven’t heard anything negative about performance that you do for us and performance you’re doing for them,” Koivisto added. “So, it seems to be working to share.”
To give the board better information, Engebritson said she will present detailed financial figures at the next collaboration committee meeting. She noted that superintendent salaries in the region currently range from $130,000 to $220,000, not including benefits.
With the clock ticking toward a January deadline for a final decision, the board agreed to let its collaboration committee take the lead in gathering information and making recommendations.
“Let’s say in two weeks we do the committee and then have all those numbers to discuss between the six board members,” Engebritson said. “Do you feel like that might start to give a sense of what you’re going to do?”
Board members indicated that was a good path forward.
Communication
concerns
Later in the meeting, board member Mallory Manick turned discussion toward board communication and involvement in decisions.
In particular, she raised concerns about parents being surprised at North Woods School when classroom assignments for second and third grade students didn’t match what had been presented in the spring.
“In May, we decided, and the parents knew and everyone was happy,” Manick said. “It was second and third grade mixed. At the open house, we find out it’s different than that. As a school board member, for me and Jarrett, you make us look bad because we had no idea.”
The arrangement had been changed to one class of second graders, another class of third graders, and a class of mixed second and third graders.
Manick, herself a parent of a third grader, said she felt relief when she saw her child was not in the mixed-age class, but said that relief pointed to the unfairness of the arrangement.
“I shouldn’t be relieved that my kid isn’t in that second-third mix, because then how do those parents feel with their kids being in there?” she said.
She argued that changes of that scale should be discussed in working sessions before parents and board members are blindsided.
“I feel like we need to maybe make some changes, like more stuff in working sessions,” Manick said. “Big stuff like cuts and re-hires. If we’re changing the classroom scheme that we’d already decided on, well … it was not like fun for me and Jarrett,” she said.
Engebritson apologized for the misstep and said she had not understood the arrangement discussed in the spring to be settled.
“I apologize,” she said. “That was not my understanding that we had that set in the spring. But if you’re saying that you felt that that was settled. And that was news to me that we were doing that.”
She later added, “I take responsibility for all of it that happened.”
As the meeting was a working session, no board action was taken on either issue Tuesday night, but both succession planning and communication practices are expected to remain front and center in the coming months.