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Schools

Lakeville Superintendent Search Firms Identified; Elementary Boundary Changes Approved

The Lakeville School Board selected two finalists to conduct their search for Dr. Gary Amoroso's replacement and finalized boundary adjustments due to Crystal Lake Elementary School's closure.

The hunt for a new superintendent moved a step forward Tuesday, as Lakeville's School Board narrowed their search firm selection down to two.

School Exec Connect, an Illinois firm with heavy Minnesota ties, and BKB Associates, of Mankato, were expected to be notified Wednesday of the board’s intention to proceed with an interview process. 

The interviews will be conduscted on May 2, and from there, the board will choose which of the two firms will lead the search to find a replacement for Lakeville Superintendent Gary Amoroso. Amoroso is retiring from the district effective June 30.

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School Exec Connect is currently conducting searches to find superintendent candidates for the Rochester and Duluth school districts. The firm also recently helped the Stillwater Area Public School District with their selection of Corey Lunn earlier this month. According to the Stillwater Gazette, that search cost the Stillwater district $17,000.

School Exec Connect has also previously worked with Richfield, Wayzata, Anoka-Hennepin and Mankato in their superintendent search processes.

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BKB Associates and School Exec Connect were also the two finalists for the Kasson-Mantorville school district. BKB Associates won that bid with a quote of $5,000 plus approximately $1,500 to $2,000 in expenses according a report in the Dodge County Independent. School Exec Connect placed a bid of $14,500  plus expenses for that search according to that same report.

South St. Paul, Houston (MN) and Waseca have also used BKB Associates for previous superintendent searches.

Board members will conduct interviews with firm representatives on May 2, after which the board will meet to make their selection. Board members have stated a preferred timeline that would see a new superintendent in place by August 1.

“If there’s anything this board has done, it’s set deadlines and met them,” said Board member Jim Skelly in reference to the board’s aggressive hiring timeline

Boundaries

The School Board on Tuesday also that were made necessary due to the board’s decision to at the end of this school year. That move, too, has been conducted on a tight timeline as administrators try to finalize staffing plans for the 2011-2012 school year.

Preliminary adjustment recommendations that dispersed Crystal Lake students to three neighboring elementary schools—Oak Hills, Christina Huddleston and Orchard Lake—were presented to the board April 5 by a designated task force that had been charged with researching the boundary changes and formulating the plan. The recommendations were presented to the public on April 12 and a special community feedback session was held at Kenwood Trail Middle School to obtain feedback on the proposed changes.

Some parents expressed concerns about the changes then, especially in regard to class sizes at Oak Hills Elementary that would see some grades at the 35 student maximum, and many of those parents were on hand again Tuesday to urge the board to rethink their decision.

But the board ultimately approved the recommended plan unchanged.

“All input is valuable and we do value it,” said Board member Kathy Lewis. “It’s all listened to and it’s all processed in a certain way. Because we don’t always do what everyone would like, it doesn’t mean we don’t listen. Our task is to do what is most important for the district as a whole.”

“The schools affected by this all had the highest available capacity percentage,“ said Board member Roz Peterson. “It makes sense that we would fill those up.”

Amoroso said the class size situation was a district-wide issue and not just isolated to Oak Hills Elementary. “The class sizes in all eight elementary schools will have the same guidelines,” he said. “It’s no different than we have had in this district.”

Those district-wide guidelines were established in January and approved by the board in February due to a deep budget cut process that also included the Crystal Lake Elementary closure.

“My hope is the parents of these other three elementary schools will take some responsibility also in welcoming the families of Crystal Lake Elementary,” said Board member Michelle Volk. “The kids that are coming into your schools, they’re special kids. It will make your school better.”

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