Peura offered contract at Lake of the Woods

Peura declined to speak about the matter.

Stuart Nordquist, chairman of the International Falls School Board, told The Journal the school board was not notified about Peura’s intention to apply for the Baudette position.

“We have not received any official correspondence, neither written nor verbal, on these plans,” Nordquist said. “We knew we had a search team here from Lake of The Woods. But we, as a board, have not been informed.”

Peura’s two-year contract with International Falls school district ends on June 30 this year. However, the board earlier this year approved renewal of his contract for another two years, beginning July 1 and ending in 2014.

Nordquist said that if Peura chooses to leave ISD 361 for the Baudette ISD 390 position, the Falls School Board would first have to release him from the new contract.

“If you’re under contract, you are legally expected to complete the contract,” Nordquist said. “But there are so many unknowns here, it’s a lot of hypotheticals.”

The students and classrooms in the district would not be affected if the Falls district had to look for a new superintendent, Nordquist added.

“We have stability in place; we have very good support staff in the central business office and in school administration,” Nordquist said. “They know what we have to look out for, and are very familiar with what has to be done. They will help direct us with anything we need to have worked out. It should not affect in any way, shape or form the day-to-day operations.”

Should official notice be given that Peura has decided to leave the district, it could then advertise for the new position. Should Peura leave, Nordquist said the board would discuss the possibility of tailoring the superintendent position.

“We would decide what the superintendent position would look like — are we willing to share with another district? Would we create a combination position with superintendent and principal? Or would we leave it as full-time superintendent?” Nordquist said. “But for now, everything is an assumption of this, or an assumption of that.”

Peura began with the district in July 2010, after former Superintendent Don Langan resigned after about five years with the district. Current dean of students Kevin Grover was interim superintendent for 6 months before Peura was hired. Langan was in a shared superintendent position, at both the Falls and Ely school districts.

Peura has formerly been superintendent at East Central School District in Sandstone, and Laporte School District near Bemidji.

If needed, the search for a new superintendent would be “running right out to the deadline” of July 1, Nordquist said.

“Would it raise havoc? It’s going to be a hiccup, but we can get through this,” Nordquist said. “If they think the pasture is greener somewhere else, we can live with it and find someone else.”

Lake of the Woods school board Chairman Tom Eaton said at the meeting April 2 that Peura has experience in helping districts come out of a deficit operating budget and is “financially savvy.” The Lake of the Woods district is currently in deficit spending.

Current Lake of the Woods shared-time elementary principal and counselor Jeff Nelson and Peura were the final candidates for the position. Eaton said during the meeting the board would consider offering the contract to Nelson “if Peura doesn’t accept.”

“We’re taking him (Peura) — plucking him out of his district, because he wants a change,” Eaton said.

All elementary teachers at Lake of the Woods, along with several staff members, attended the meeting in support of Nelson, saying despite the board’s research on Peura and visit to the Falls district learning positive things about his work, the teachers have “heard otherwise.”

“That’s why we did our homework; this guy is coming from a bigger school, where he’s getting more money, why is he coming this direction? It almost was a ‘too good to be true’ kind of thing,” said Lake of the Woods board member Tim Lyon during the meeting. “We needed to find something else that was going on; it almost raised the hairs on your neck in terms of suspicion. We tried to find something, but only saw good.”

The board approved offering Peura the contract after a split vote of 3-3, followed by a second round of interviews, and another split vote of 3-3. A swing vote on April 2 resulted in a majority vote for Peura. A scoring system initially narrowed the eight candidates down to the final two, the board said.

“This is not being done lightly and it’s not being done without having done our due diligence,” said Eaton.

Current Lake of the Woods interim superintendent Ralph Christofferson will continue his position through June 30; the new position offered to Peura begins July 1. The Lake of the Woods district has about 500 students; International Falls has about 1,200.

“Nothing’s been signed yet,” Eaton told The Journal this week. “We’re still working on putting the final touches on the contract.”

After the decision to go with Peura was made at the meeting, Eaton said to the crowd, “I think you people will be happy. This guy has a lot to offer, and if it doesn’t work out, we will be there behind you to make sure that things will be done down the road.”