The Griswold School Board, Tuesday evening, passed a motion in a continuation of efforts to find a shared Superintendent to replace Dana Kunze, who will be departing at the end of June. The motion was made by Board member Steve Baier, after about an hour of discussion. The motion as read by Board Secretary Nancy Taylor. “Baier moved to go forward with consideration of Superintendent sharing opportunities at this time, and if not making successful progress by June 1st pursue an interim Superintendent.” The motion was seconded by Scott Peterson.

Griswold School Board, from left to right: Steve Baier, Erika Kirchhoff, Scott Hansen, Scott Peterson, Heather Pelzer, Board Secretary Nancy Taylor, Superintendent Dana Kunze.

The Board was forced to consider their Superintendent options, because a proposed three-way sharing agreement between the South Page and Sidney School Districts was shot down by the Sidney School Board during their meeting, Monday night.

The priority for the Board right now, as made evident during their meeting, Tuesday, is to have the administrative team at Griswold go through a list candidates for a Middle School/High School Principal, whittle those candidates down to five or six for video interviews, and then have those persons interviewed by the Board for consideration.

Steve Baier said there’s still time to get the Superintendent in place by June 1st, but the urgency lies in the Middle School/High School Principal’s position, because that’s the “face of district,” the person with the most public contact. He said there shouldn’t be a problem in finding an interim Superintendent, and in fact, several individuals have expressed an interest in such a position.

The Board had discussed trying to find two more districts to share with, sharing with one district, having a combination Superintendent/Middle School-High School Principal, and, using an interim Superintendent. They ruled out the Combo position, because it risks burning out the person selected, and their other obligations would stretch them too thin.

Board President Scott Hansen, agreed, saying also, a combination position would be detrimental to maintaining discipline. In any case, the Board agreed with Petersen, who said “The clock is ticking” on finding a solution to the leadership problem, and the direction they’re heading now, is the best way to proceed.