Several International Falls elementary school teachers spoke with emotion about hiring an elementary principal at a work session of the International Falls School Board Tuesday.
Elementary teachers and staff spoke in support of hiring an in-house candidate — Kevin Grover, current Falls dean of students — for the position.
Andy Fougner, Falls Response to Intervention coordinator and special education teacher who was also a final candidate for the elementary principal position, notified the board of his intent to withdraw from consideration and resign from the district.
That leaves two final candidates for the principal position: Grover and Kristine Lamb, K-12 music teacher at Cromwell-Wright Public Schools in Carlton County. Lamb was the interview committee’s recommendation for the hire.
A 3-3 split vote at two previous meetings left the board divided on which candidate to hire for the job. Board Chairman Stuart Nordquist and board members Will Kostiuk and Dena Wenberg voted in favor of Lamb. Board members Michelle Hebner, Mark Lassila and Darrell Wagner voted in favor of Grover or Fougner — expressing their desire to hire a candidate already working in the district.
The board is expected to accept Fougner’s resignation and withdrawal of candidacy when it meets Monday.
“I’d appreciate the board’s willingness to come forward and take another shot at new applicants if that’s the direction you want to go,” said Superintendent Nordy Nelson at the meeting. “And I would think that the two applicants would still be in the mix and that you might have others out there that you’d like to take a look at.”
The board agreed to take Nelson’s recommendation and vote again Monday. If it does not result in a majority vote, the district will re-post the position and open it to current and new candidates.
Tearful debates about candidate qualifications and the matter of hiring a local candidate or someone from outside the community took place for about an hour at the meeting.
“I think someone local should be looked at seriously and I don’t know if the local person was,” BethAnne Slatinski, district paraprofessional, said in support of hiring Grover.
Nordquist said the district should hire the best candidate, regardless of where they come from.
“You mean, to have someone from out of town, they don’t have a chance?” Nordquist asked the audience. “We’re supposed to be an equal opportunity employer. Not a closed, ‘good old boys’ club.”
“If we’re going to exclude people from the outside, I don’t know how that could be considered an equal opportunity employer,” he continued.
Wenberg said a main reason she sought a board seat was “because I saw unjust people being hired” as part of the “good old boys’ club of getting a job because of who you know and not what you know.”
She emphasized the importance of having an interview committee make a recommendation to the board. The committee recommended Lamb twice after a second interview of the candidates was called in an effort to break the tie in votes.
Interview committee
Elementary school staff voiced their concerns about the members chosen to sit on the board’s interview committee. Several teachers said they did not believe that members of the interview committee were a “good representation” of the elementary schools.
“I think we need to be heard,” said elementary teacher Kim McDonald. “We are professionals, we’re passionate, and disregarded.”
Slatinski said she feels a paraprofessional should have been on the committee.
McDonald said she is “deeply saddened” by the process and that “it’s got to be about what’s best for the kids.”
Kostiuk said he thought the process was “done fairly.”
The elementary principal selection committee was made up of Nordquist; Garner Wiley, parent; Tim Everson, Falls High School principal; Ardel Hendrickson, district testing coordinator and special education teacher; and Paul Hjelle, elementary teacher.
Hebner said Nordquist hand-picked the interview committee, stating that the selection is supposed to be done by the superintendent.
“Let’s not make accusations like that,” Kostiuk said. “(Nordquist) did the best he could in picking a committee. We’ll resolve this...let’s all be adults.”
Nordquist said former superintendent, Jeff Peura, who served the district at that time and resigned June 30, “wanted nothing to do with this (selection of an elementary principal interview committee).”
Staff input
Nelson called an informal meeting with elementary staff Tuesday morning, when he asked for input on the options he presented at the last meeting to overcome the stalemate. Several of the options presented included combining the elementary principal positions with another current district position.
Staff wrote a letter to the board in favor of keeping the position full-time and hiring Grover after hearing the options presented by Nelson.
“We feel very strongly that it would be in the best interest of our students, the faculty and our staff to have a full-time principal at the elementary level,” the letter read. “We believe that our local candidate would be able to step in, bypass the learning curve, and begin the job of supporting our students, parents and staff of Independent School District 361 immediately.”
The letter added that the decision should be made as soon as possible in light of the elementary reconfiguration and cuts in support staff.
Previous elementary principal Jerry Hilfer retired June 30. The board had intended to fill the position with a contract starting July 1.
Falls preschool teacher Missy Walls spoke further about the position of the elementary staff.
“You have a lot of local people in this town who are committed to this town and who have a vested interest in this town and in making things better,” Walls said. “And you pull in people from out of town who use us a stepping stone to get to somewhere great. And they don’t care about us. And that’s what (Lamb) would most likely do is use us for a couple years and move on when she’s had her experience.”
First-grade teacher Lisa Auran said Lamb does not have background in Response to Intervention programs, which has become a large part of the district’s teaching methods.
“Teaching has changed tremendously over the past five years.” Auran said. “We teach the children at their level, we don’t herd children from grade to grade like we used to. I don’t think that going with someone who doesn’t know where we’ve been and where we’re going is going to be the best candidate for our elementary school.”
Wagner echoed that statement.
“When you hire local people you know what you’re getting,” Wagner said. “I mean, we’re taking a chance if we hire that Kristine Lamb — a big chance.”
Kostiuk said that although a higher percentage of people from out of town end up moving on, “you can’t say that about an individual, we don’t know that.”
“I mean, we hired Mr. Nelson, he’s not from here,” Kostiuk said. “But we felt we got the best man.”
Elementary teachers and staff at the meeting who voiced opinions in favor of Grover cited his track record with the district and his knowledge of Falls district operations.
Second-grade teacher Jill Katrin broke into tears as she described Grover’s help with the transition of the closure of Holler Elementary School.
Referring to the letter written by elementary staff, Hebner said, “So when does the voice of the elementary school begin to matter. How loud do they need to get?”
Wenberg said some board members are concerned about the staff’s recommendation of Grover, “but we can’t say them because of data privacy. So it’s hard to sit here and be quiet.”
Moving forward
The next step in moving away from the stalemate is expected to be addressed Monday, with the direction of the superintendent.
“A committee will be formed if we don’t make a (majority) vote, so let’s stop throwing these daggers at people,” Kostiuk said. “We’re spinning our wheels here.”
Nelson said earlier he is willing to step in to fulfill the duties of elementary principal until a candidate is hired. He told the board Tuesday that if he took on that role, he would not ask the district for extra compensation.
He emphasized the importance of board members having an open discussion and being willing to consider re-posting the position to ensure a full-time candidate, because of the size of the district and because of “society’s ails.”
“We have issues in society that every school district, statewide and nationwide, deals with,” Nelson said. “And our society is such that schools and education are the dumping ground — left to really fix the problems, take care of the issues, and remedy everything. Schools have a big responsibility and educators, employees in the school, really have a load to carry.”
