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Administrators share views of super candidates
Interviews for four finalists slated for later this month
Published Saturday, February 7, 2009
Cathy Bettino
Mike Funk
John Chalstrom
Joe Brown
Jamie Skjeveland
Mary Smidt
Before the Albert Lea school board members deliberated Thursday about the six superintendent finalists they interviewed, three administrators spelled out their views of the job candidates.
Ultimately that night, the school selected four to move to the next round:
• Cathy Bettino, superintendent of the Pine River-Backus School District.
• Mike Funk, superintendent of the Bird Island, Olivia, Lake Lillian School District, often termed BOLD.
• John Chalstrom, superintendent, Cherokee (Iowa) Community School District.
• Joe Brown, superintendent, Grand Meadow School District.
And two did not make the cut:
• Jamie Skjeveland, superintendent, Crosby-Ironton School District.
• Mary Smidt, superintendent, Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley School District.
The three administrators who made comments before the deliberations were Director of Curriculum Judy Knudtson, Southwest Middle School Principal Marsha Langseth and Hawthorne Elementary School Principal Corrine Tims.
The next round of interviews for the four finalists is slated to take place later this month. This article concentrates on comments the administrators made on the four.
On Mike Funk, Tims said she liked that he possesses a doctorate and a military background. She said he seems he would be skilled at leading by developing relationships. He has a lot of energy and is data-driven. A weakness is he didn’t have a Q-Comp background.
Though Q-Comp is a weakness, Langseth said she likes that he has had many opportunities to lead.
Knudtson said she likes that Funk is teacher-driven and has a sense of his community’s strengths. He had mentioned how budget cuts aren’t merely monetary choices.
“I love the idea about it being a values question,” she said.
Chalstrom demonstrated willingness to change, Tims said. He, too, has a doctorate, she noted.
She said he is engaged and understands the importance of a global view and takes pride in his community. Tims said Chalstrom has a lack of Q-Comp knowledge because he works in Iowa and said he could be more specific about his quest for diversity.
Langseth said she agreed about the weakness but said she liked that he had a real plan for facing levies. She said she appreciated his insightful questions for the school board.
Knudtson said Chalstrom had a sense for relating Iowa aspects to Minnesota aspects of the education systems. She added he could give more concrete examples and said she liked that he is frustrated by complacency or failure to innovate.
Bettino exuded confidence “from the moment she sat down,” Tims said.
Tims called her articulate and said her interview answers aligned well with her application. She said she liked when Bettino talked about her pride in strategic planning skills and liked the idea of scorecards.
Tims was glad to hear Bettino talk about the Minneapolis-based Search Institute.
Langseth said she was happy to her about strategic planning, too.
“You live it. You breathe it,” Langseth said.
She appreciated how Bettino explained diversity in socio-economic terms, too. She said she liked that Bettino wasn’t looking for work elsewhere but was urged to apply, then liked what she saw in Albert Lea. She said she felt comfortable talking with her.
Knudtson noted that Bettino has public relations skills that would be good for the district.
Langseth said Brown’s strength as a storyteller can be a weakness, too.
Tims said she was surprised that Brown was one of the few administrators she has met who likes the political side of education. She said he comes from a well-rounded background and said he would have to come from an “extremely small district to a large one.”
Knudtson said she liked his “out-of-the-box initiatives” to get some tasks accomplished. She said staying within time was a problem during the interview.
The Albert Lea school board will hold two special meetings next week at Brookside Education Center. One will be at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. The other at 2 p.m. Thursday.
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Comments
Posted by gone (anonymous) on February 7, 2009 at 8:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Principals are usually aspiring superintendents. Principals and superintendents alike are usually short of classroom time and business experience. MN education needs major overall to learn the way we learn today (e.g. online) and to prepare our children to compete in this challenging new world economy. I've watched three superintendents in one of the largest metro districts over the past twenty-five years and they all had the same experience, the same PhEd, the same commitment to planning, and frankly, the same luck in influencing significant change in curriculum content and delivery. We will not help our children or be satisfied with the outcome of our tax investment until the management side of education has a new paradigm, the Educ MN stranglehold on contract negotiations is released, and when we realize that more money in and of itself is not the solution. 'Steps and lanes' has had zero influence on the 'outcomes' that measure out childrens' skills.
Given that I spent a lot of time in the Principal's office at Hawthorne, and a few others, I'd do the executive thing and skip the rest of the questioning and hearings and just pick the guy who looks like Joe Biden. He has nice teeth and a good haircut. He could use a lesson from the Funk guy on how to select and tie a proper necktie. Of course we never get very far when the decision makers are over-40 white guys.
Posted by nisperos (anonymous) on February 7, 2009 at 11:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Chalstrom or Bettino look like the best bets to me.
In the next round, I would like to see more details and specifics on views of diversity, special needs students, use of volunteers, and how decisions would be made in a time of budget shortfalls. It would also be good to hear some specific example of how they may have handled political aspects of their previous jobs.
Chalstrom's tie and Bettino's scarf were the classiest neckwear too. Did anyone check out the shoes they were wearing?
Posted by gone (anonymous) on February 8, 2009 at 7:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
As a long time corporate executive I do judge men by their shoes. Wingtips and cap toes are always solid performers who take their shoes (and their feet) seriously. I do not trust men who wear loafers with tassels.
It's now a toss up between the women and the non-tasseled men.
Posted by metisman (anonymous) on February 8, 2009 at 10:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Gone, what type of business are you in just in case we want to avoid the embarrassment of being judged by out footwear?
Posted by gone (anonymous) on February 9, 2009 at 8:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The critical issue is education reform, not education administration. In MN superintendents are all required by statute to have similar education and work credentials. MN statutes guide most aspects of school/education curriculum, management, budgets, contract negotiation, etc. My issue is obviously not with shoes (although I am partial to cap toe shoes on men and virtually any business shoe on women). It is virtually impossible to change education despite everyone's complaints. At a point the AL district will face more budget/referendum issues as the state faces the impending budget shortfall. Education will have to be cut this years. Which of these candidates can be creative in that environment.
So the issue remains that education reform will not occur within the current structure. Any of these superintendents will not fundamentally change education. We have one side of the world who thinks teachers are overpaid and districts can be run more efficiently ($) and we have people who want more money for education. Each of those polarized opinions are not solutions moving forward and all the stakeholders including the legislature and the governor remain firmly entrenched.
Any of these candidates will likely be just fine in the conventional sense. They'll get the budgets done. They'll work within the parent and student community to make it a more harmonious environment, etc. But if you want our children to be able to compete in the new world economy and you want to deliver educational opportunities in a 21st century fashion you need to encourage reform at the state and national level.
So when attempting to make the correct decision among candidates who are all from the same career track and who have more or less the same education it may come down to shoes. The article said some candidates gave better answers and that seemed to be news. The bottom line is how will they execute, not what kind of answers they give, how will they truly work within the district, how will they lead within the superintendents organization (there is one), and what latitude will they create or be given to reform.
It's a professional job. Candidates are judged by what they say, what they have done, what we'd like them to do, what we believe they can do, and by the image they present of themselves, and how deeply they'll be in the trenches. How well they fill the shoes for that job is the critical issue.
Posted by Wildbill (anonymous) on February 9, 2009 at 11:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
gone, I wish you were sitting in on these interviews. Unfortunately, our educational system is slowly becoming inept in the world today.
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