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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Principal search narrowed

Just one of the 19 applicants to be interviewed

Keith Vandervort
Posted 6/1/16

ELY – Three candidates for the Ely School District 6-12 principal position stood out from 16 other applicants to earn an invitation to be interviewed by the search committee.

Ely teacher Megan …

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Principal search narrowed

Just one of the 19 applicants to be interviewed

Posted

ELY – Three candidates for the Ely School District 6-12 principal position stood out from 16 other applicants to earn an invitation to be interviewed by the search committee.

Ely teacher Megan Anderson, who has served as interim 6-12 principal since March following the resignation of Mary McGrane, is the sole candidate who will be interviewed for the permanent position on Monday, June 6 at 4 p.m.

The screening process was completed last week, results were scored and tabulated and the finalists were about to be revealed when Board Chairman Ray Marsnik put the whole process on ice.

“Before we go any further with this, I just want to say that we are still in negotiations with the superintendent,” Marsnik said.

Kevin Abrahamson, who has been ISD 696’s interim superintendent since last August, was offered a permanent part-time position last month. Contract negotiations were held on May 25, but a contract was not finalized.

Marsnik anticipated finalizing the superintendent’s contract after Memorial Day, but was reluctant to move forward on the principal search.

“I think it is in our best interest that we hold back on contacting these candidates until the (superintendent) negotiations are complete,” he said. “I think we have to get this contract settled first. If Kevin refuses the offer, then we are going to have to look for a superintendent. I think we have to leave the door open for other options, such as a combination of a superintendent and principal or something along that line,” Marsnik said.

The principal search committee met Tuesday, and with the superintendent negotiations apparently finalized, the committee directed the superintendent’s assistant to contact the three finalists to invite them for an interview. The other two finalists declined the offer.

The principal search committee is made up of the six School Board members, the superintendent, K-12 principal Anne Oelke, teachers Amy Kingsley, Andrea Thomas and Tim Omerza, and athletic director Tom Coombe.

They screened the 19 applicants using a numbered scoring system. They did not know the names of the candidates for the screening process.

Scoring totals ranged from 242 to 931. Three candidates scored much higher than the rest, with scores of 931, 841 and 838. The next highest score was 701. Screening committee members unanimously recommended that candidates 6 and 7 be interviewed. For candidate 8, seven of the 11 screeners recommended an interview.