International Falls School District Superintendent Nordy Nelson apparently is a victim of his own success and ambition, supporters said this week after he reversed himself and declared he wants to stay another year.
The plan, Nelson told The Journal Thursday, is to try his absolute best to see through all the ideas he introduced or helped others pursue. Those include completing contract talks, changing curriculum and bringing students back. It’s too many and too important to walk out on, he said.
On Tuesday, he signed a one-year contract extension proposal, according to district documents. Otherwise, Nelson’s last day would have been June 30.
The offer most likely will be ratified by the board Monday, Chairman Darrell “Boxer” Wagner and member Michael Holden said. They both said they were extremely pleased after lobbying Nelson, a lobbyist himself, since his unexpected announcement in mid-February to resign and leave Borderland after just a year.
“There’s a lot to do here,” Nelson said Thursday. “Having someone new come in would have delayed most projects by at least a year for research and to get backing, I believe. Then there is the chance they would not wish to pursue the same course of actions I’ve set out upon.
“The district needs to get the next teacher contract put in place and it needs a seven-period day to be competitive and offer the electives students should have here. So, those are the main reasons I decided to stay.”
Holden said it “absolutely made my day” when Nelson asked board members to see him in his office in pairs this week so he could ask them about writing up a new one-year contract.
It is virtually identical to his last one in terms of the same salary – $110,000 – and benefits, Nelson said. However, it will only be from July 1 to June 30, 2014, he said. Then, Nelson said, he absolutely will leave.
“He’s not doing it for the money,” Holden said of the 30-year education veteran.
But after about seven months as International Falls School District 361’s superintendent, Nelson said he was departing to pursue his St. Cloud, Minn.,-based consulting business full time.
Rather than doing a senior slide, though, Nelson accelerated plans to improve the district, his supporters noted.
His most high-profile achievement to date was pushing to bring the teachers’ union and board back to the bargaining table on good terms after about two years of butting heads over the 2011-2013 contract.
Last week, Local 331 and board members ratified a new master agreement.
The board then dove directly into discussing what’s expected to be a more complex 2013-2015 contract.
Back in October, the district’s roughly 70 teachers resoundingly rejected the previous offer after a process contentious enough that a state mediator was brought in. The teachers were working with a continuation contract from 2009-2011 but said the conflict and lack of structure kept lowering morale.
Then voters replaced two longtime board members in November’s elections. Soon after they took office in January, Nelson was critical to bringing the sides together on congenial terms, some board members said.
In the middle of it, the board and Nelson faced school safety matters following the Sandy Hook school shootings. Nelson arranged for ongoing public input along with board working sessions – led by retired Falls police captain and board Member Will Kostiuk – to decide on, fund and eventually implement the changes.
“Look how he got the teachers’ contact done,” said Holden, who is one of the new members and a countywide union leader himself. “And now things I think are going to get better and better and better.”
Holden said Nelson has a pleasant and respectful demeanor and handles himself in stressful environments with even-keeled professionalism.
“I’m really, really thankful and excited,” said Holden, who since February has been one of the members working to keep Nelson. “He is going to lead us into better times, and I’m not the only one who believes it. Everyone likes him. It’s all positive what he’s trying to do.”
Those plans include trying to halt and reverse the continuing drain of students from ISD 361, which translates into lots of lost dollars.
Nelson wants to form a 30-member “Blue Ribbon” panel to be made up of students’ parents and grandparents, local leaders and concerned residents. It would establish more community investment in the district and enrich the kids educations, he’s said.
He and his administrative team as last week introduced proposals to the board to reduce elementary and high school class sizes, and create new opportunities such as advanced placement calculus and an engineering program. They’ve also discussed greatly improving technology and bringing back teacher evaluations.
More plans discussed since the new year began involve making capital improvements, like sprucing up the high school cafeteria to make it less “institutional,” Nelson’s said.
Just painting parts of the high school’s interior with Bronco purple and gold paint would create more school spirit, FHS principal Tim Everson has said. He’s also been charged by Nelson and the board to research the pros and cons of students leaving the district to attend Rainy River Community College next door for both high school and college credit.
As soon as an April 29 special meeting, the board also could vote on plans under discussion from Everson and elementary schools principal Melissa Tate to add classrooms and reduce class size. Big classes are one of the main reasons kids leave, experts say. Nelson is even overseeing transportation contract changes.
“We still have a lot of questions out there about what direction we’ll go in and then being able to address it financially,” Nelson said. “Now is not the time to throw the ball back into other people’s hands.”
Nelson said after the last special meeting on April 3, it hit him how many “tremendous needs” exist.
“We have so much going on,” said Wagner, who had said he felt blindsided when Nelson resigned. “I mean look at a few things he started like the Blue Ribbon panel, and he got us this far with negotiations. He just doesn’t want to leave with so much he started.
Nelson keeps up with education trends, too, Wagner said. And he knows how to execute, Wagner said.
Nelson brings with him an all-around excellent skill set, said Wagner, who’s been on the board 16 years. That includes budget and finance, labor relations, public discourse, curriculum and referendums, Wagner said.
“He’s a good one,” Wagner said. “Just look at our agendas and you can see how busy we are. How big the ideas are. I’m glad to have him back or I should say keep him.”
