By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

When the New York Mills School Board received Superintendent Blaine Novak’s notice of retirement, they did so knowing that the search for a successor needed to begin right away. Within two weeks of receiving his letter of retirement the school board set the wheels in motion to have the school’s next superintendent in place by the end of April.

The school board hired the Minnesota School Board Association (MSBA) to run the search throughout the state. Through the MSBA’s services, candidates for the position are sought out, applications and resumes are received, interview training and procedures are reviewed with board members, screening and pre-interviews are undertaken and recommendations are made to the school board.

A survey to the public opened February 8 and closed on March 4 and asked community stakeholders to weigh in on what they find to be important in the new superintendent. These answers will be reviewed by the school board and the results will help to narrow down the finalists while keeping the community’s wishes at heart.

“As a board, our primary focus for a superintendent is someone with financial acumen,” said Wendy Hetland, chair of the school board. “Maybe the community doesn’t feel that way, so we’re looking for focus areas, it gives us other points to look for. Our plan is to review all of the results, compile and add them to what we will talk about at our meeting on Thursday.”

While the survey’s final date came and went on Monday, Hetland said that they are still open to community input as they want to keep the school district’s wanted qualities at the forefront during the search.

Novak, who has filled the superintendent position for the past 11 years, mentioned that the major qualification for the position is the superintendent licensure from the State of Minnesota. Over the past decade of experience, he has also picked up some helpful qualities along the way that he said has been a big help to his tenure as superintendent.

“I think a person that can build and maintain relationships,” said Novak, “I think an understanding of policy, because you’re involved in policy a lot, and you have to have an understanding of budget. Those are three big ones. The learning curve is steep for a new superintendent. Being able to work with a diverse population with relationships, policy, and budget. Creating and maintaining a vision for the school district. Community involvement.”

Novak has been intentionally left out of the selection process and he stated the importance of that decision when a transition such as this takes place.

“There’s a reason you keep a person (in my position) out of it,” he said. “I will certainly support, I will do anything the individual needs, but I also want them to be able to have their own space. You don’t want to come into a situation and have the old guy looking over your shoulder. I’ll be available, be able to support, be able to offer whatever I can, but I want them to be able to have their own role.

“I just hope they get somebody great,” smiled Novak. “I hope they get somebody that knocks the socks off of everybody and takes the district and runs with it.”

Cindy Hetland said that the search has received several applications so far, but the board won’t be sure of the depth and range of the search until applications close on March 19. After that date, the MSBA will conduct screening, verification of references and pre-interviews for the board.

“We hired them because none of us have any real experience with that kind of search and I really do think it’s worth any money we’ve spent on it,” Hetland said. “They put (the applications) together in a similar format and we will look at them all at the same time.”

Once the application period ends on March 19, the school board will review the applications before conducting interviews and narrowing down the finalists starting in early April. With the changes in the district office, including long-time business manager, Marsha Maki, retiring and some shuffling of duties within the same office, there will be a new dynamic when the school year arrives next fall.

“With the changes in the business office, it’ll be a learning curve for everybody, I think,” said Hetland. “They (the incoming superintendent) are going to have to forge their own path and I’m assuming whoever it is that we end up with, they’re not going to drop everything and start over, but they’ll make their own way. I think we’re all pretty excited about it, but we will miss Blaine.”