The Crookston School Board had a special meeting on Monday afternoon and selected two finalists to interview for the school district’s superintendent position.
This is the second time the school board has narrowed down the list of finalists. This time, the finalists were selected from a pool of 10 applicants based on criteria established by the school board and survey responses from Crookston Public Schools staff and the public. “Several of them had reapplied from before, but there were also some new ones. We looked through all the candidates and their pros and cons. Some of them did not have a Minnesota license, and we didn’t want to get slowed down with that in the process,” said Crookston School Board Chair Tim Dufault. “We looked at the ones with a Minnesota license and we narrowed it down to two very positive candidates, and we’re going to bring them in on Wednesday night and see what we think of them.”
The finalists are:
–Robert Lukens of Aneta, ND (Superintendent at Harvey (ND) Public Schools July 2023 – June 2025, High School/Middle School principal at Kadoka, South Dakota Public Schools from August 2021-June 2023, a teacher at Northwood, North Dakota, August 2014-May 2020. Also taught in Wishek ND, and Grafton, ND.)
-Dr. Tim Godfrey – Superintendent at Red Rock Central, Minnesota (He has an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from UND, a Master of Science in Special Education Emotional Disturbance/Learning Disabilities from Florida State University, and a Bachelor of Science in Social Science from the University of Southern Colorado. He has 30 years of experience in education, with 16 years in administrative roles.)
The school board has scheduled interviews beginning at 3:55 pm on Wednesday, March 11. “Hopefully, on Wednesday, we can make up our mind. We still have Thursday scheduled, so if we want a second look, we can bring them back in. But I’m thinking one interview should do it this time,” said Dufault. Hopefully, by Wednesday evening, we can come to a conclusion and make an offer to the person we want. We’ll take the citizens’ input and the staff’s, mix it with the board, and make our selection. And then we would reach out to the candidate and see if we can make a deal.”
All interviews will be held at the Crookston School and are open to the public. “These are all open meetings, so they’ll be starting at 3:55 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon in the choir orchestra room,” said Dufault. “So anybody who wants to attend can certainly come and watch them.”
To ensure a level playing field for all candidates, the interviews will not be livestreamed or recorded.
