The Crookston School Board held a superintendent workshop meeting on Friday at the district office inside Crookston High School. The session was led by Barb Dorn, Director of Leadership Development and Executive Search for the Minnesota School Boards Association (MSBA).
The goal of the session was to inform the school board members and interim superintendent Todd Selk about the process of providing a superintendent evaluation and identifying goals for Selk to work on throughout the school year. Selk thanked Dorn for her presentation and the school board for their participation. “I think it went very well,” Selk said. “She’s very experienced, very poised, and knows how to discuss this type of thing with a board. She has a vast majority of opportunities that she’s put herself in, as far as having these types of discussions. So overall, I thought she led a very good discussion, and I thank the board that they participated fully as well.”
Dorn led a presentation on how the school board and Selk can effectively identify goals for Selk to accomplish throughout the school year. Some of the goals identified by Selk and the board include building solid financial foundations for the district and establishing a stable administrative team. School Board Chairman Tim Dufault thought the board had identified other goals, such as test scores, attendance, and strategic planning, but they all agreed that finances and strengthening the administrative team were the top priorities. “That’s what’s great about our board. It’s diverse,” Dufault explained. “Some people want to do strategic planning. Some people were looking at test scores, but when it came down to it, the vast majority is keeping an eye on the finances and district-wide leadership. We’ve had so much turnover in the last so many years, principals and activities director, and well, superintendents that we got to figure this out and get some people here that are going to be here for longer terms.”
Dorn told the board and Selk that providing an evaluation can help identify the direction that Selk and/or the school board can take regarding the superintendent position, since Selk is currently on a one-year contract with the district. While no decisions have been made yet, Selk acknowledged that this session gave the school board the tools to move forward with evaluating Selk’s tenure with the district and determining the next steps. “Well, I think the superintendent piece is interesting,” said Selk. “There’s no question I’m at the twilight of my career. There’s no question I haven’t hit that. If anybody can figure out my age, they know that I would be at the twilight of my career. Does that mean I’m done at the end of June? Not necessarily. Does that mean I’m on for four more years? Not necessarily. But the board needs to make that decision on how they want to go forward with that.”
