The Albert Lea school board on Tuesday selected five out of 14 applicants to come in for first-round interviews with the board next week in hopes of becoming the district’s next superintendent. 

The following are the semifinalists: 

• Dr. Steven Heil, superintendent of St. James Public Schools

• Mandy Fletcher, superintendent of the Blue Earth Area School District 

• Dr. Michael Neubeck, superintendent of Byron Public Schools 

• Beth Giese, superintendent of Kenyon-Wanamingo Public Schools. 

• Dr. Jami Jo Thompson, superintendent of Norfolk Public Schools in Nebraska. 

Thompson withdrew her name from the running after the meeting, and according to a Rapid City Journal article Tuesday night had accepted a job as superintendent of Rapid City Area Schools.

First-round interviews are slated to begin at 9 a.m. March 26 in Room 109 at Brookside Education Center. Interviews are open to the public.

In her presentation of the applicants, Barb Dorn with Minnesota School Boards Association congratulated the district on the strength of its candidate pool and stated applicants came from four different states, though the majority were from Minnesota as was expected. Of the 14 applicants, eight had previously served as superintendent, with an average of 10.3 years of experience each. Six also already held doctorates and two are in the process of obtaining it. 

“Very strong pool for Albert Lea, and you should be quite impressed,” she said. 

Dorn said of the 14 applicants, MSBA had eight people they wanted to look at more in-depth, and after looking at prerequisites and reference checks, there were five that were stronger than others. The other three were also solid candidates, but they didn’t feel they were as strong as the others. 

After listening to the recommendations of MSBA, Board Chairman Dave Klatt handed out a sheet of paper with each of the applicants’ names listed and asked the board members present to select their top five candidates after reviewing the applications since earlier this month. Board members Mary Jo Dorman and Davy Villarreal were not in attendance. 

Of the five semifinalists selected by the board, three candidates were selected by all five board members present, and one was selected by four board members. A fifth candidate was selected by three members.

Ultimately, the five selected to move forward were in line with MSBA’s recommendations. 

Candidates were referred to as letters until the semifinalists were named. 

Board member Angie Hoffman asked the board to consider a sixth semifinalist as she had concerns about one of the candidates and noted that one of the other candidates was likely to be hired elsewhere. 

Klatt said one of the other board members not in attendance reached out to him to give their feedback and also suggested a sixth finalist. Klatt, however, said the conversation with that individual was only discussion and did not count as a vote.  

Board member Gary Schindler said he did not think the sixth candidate being discussed was strong enough to meet the needs of the district and did not think that person should be included in the interviews. He said he considered the recent survey conducted during the search as his filter when considering candidates. 

Board member Kim Nelson said she also thought it was powerful to see how strongly everyone was on the same page with the five candidates — three candidates all felt strongly about, and two candidates had a majority of board members. 

Board member Neal Skaar said he concurred with the advice of the MSBA, who he said have the wherewithal to make strong recommendations for the position. He said while there were a couple other candidates he would have liked to have included, he thought the pool contained some excellent candidates. 

Check back to the Tribune for more information about the candidates.