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Now that we live in 2010 I feel it is important to spend a little quality time with Google now and then. Google does not have the answers to everything but I think it goes a long way in providing background on a person. So I thought I would share my adventures in googling the Superintendent candidates with you all...
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David Baukol - he did retire last year, but has been looking at other positions and was a top finalist in Royalton <http://mcrecord.com/Main.asp?SectionID=9&SubSectionID=385&ArticleID=55465> . Montevideo is preparing to make $767k <http://www.montenews.com/news/education/x1759784872/Board-opts-to-reconfigure-buildings-move-forward-with-767K-in-cuts?popular=true> in cuts to deal with their budget woes. He does appear in a report on Superintendent compensation, <http://www.osa.state.mn.us/reports/gid/2003/compensation/compensation_03_report.pdf> nothing of interest there except for the fact that up until 1998 Superintendents were not allowed to make more than 95% of the Governor's salary. Seems pretty solid to me.
Jim Behle is involved in contentious redistricting down in Iowa, I don't think that is a reflection of Behle, that is a hard task and as we all know when you are moving kids from school to school it raises hackles.There is a matter of a principal resigning <http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/85159092.html> after a writing a letter to the editor about the redistricting. Iowa City is losing their Superintendent <http://www.press-citizen.com/article/201003030320/NEWS01/3030315> , that would seem a better step for Behle as he knows the district. To his defense Iowa City is using a search firm and they can overlook very well qualified internal candidates. <http://www.waseca.k12.mn.us/homepageWPS.nsf/pages/administration+staff+directory+central+intermediate?opendocument> It is important to note that Behle's district was noted for having the second highest achievement scores and the highest paid teachers in a recent report <http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/article_270a70e1-513e-5b5a-bbd5-fc41b50790dc.html> .
While it would seem that Joe Brown would be a slam dunk for me since he taught in the fair city of Austin and his current district has one of the greatest buildings in Southern Minnesota. His thoughts on gender segregation <http://www.austindailyherald.com/news/2009/aug/03/why-are-boys-failing/> make me wonder if his strong suit is leading a district through financial distress. He did look at collaborating with other districts <http://www.minnpost.com/community_voices/2009/01/09/5711/new_collaborations_could_help_minnesotas_underfunded_schools> in Mower County which is a great concept. He was passed over in Albert Lea <http://www.albertleatribune.com/news/2009/feb/06/albert-lea-school-board-picks-4-finalists/> "The knock on Brown was that he gave long, political-type answers that didn’t exactly give answers to the questions"
Brian Dietz seems to have applied Google Teflon as I cannot find much about him. The district he runs seems to be faring better than neighboring districts <http://www.helendalesd.org/?mod=district&submod=superintendent> . He does play fantasy football, thinks Minnesota has more game and responds very well to rapid fire questions about bond referendums <http://www.vvdailypress.com/video/?videoId=1854859079&lineupId=1796130819&play=now> . The $20 million referendum passed 68% of voters supporting it.
Bob Laney traveled to China <http://www.mnsun.com/articles/2006/07/28/news/fw03ahchinatrip.txt> with a contingent of Minnesota educators. This article <http://www.parentsunited.org/0912317.html> shows St Louis Parks efforts to deal with budgetary woes has some similarity to Waseca's issues - seems to be a good mix of common sense approaches.
Not a lot of info on Jeff Taylor out there - here is his statement on activity fees <http://www.highschoolot.com/content/story/6384417/> for athletics (capped at $240 per family).
Other items...
Thanks to Marla Rohl for recommending "The Shack <http://theshackbook.com/> " bought it, read it and handed it off to my wife in about 12 hours - great book, a moist eye or two in the process. Best book I have read in at least 10 years.
Went to Center for the American Experiment "WHAT WE’VE LEARNED ABOUT CUTTING BUDGETS <http://www.americanexperiment.org/events/2010/2010-03-02.php> " Featuring Tim Penny and Rudy Boschwitz. Tim's key statements were (paraphrasing here) "The legislative body will never approve a budget lower than what is offered by the Executive" and "Control the process and you can control the budget". Does the new Superintendent count as the equivalent as the executive in a School district? If so a key question in interviewing might be "are you fiscally conservative?". Rudy also stressed process when it comes to budget and wants a two year budget in Washington. Not to pat myself on the back too much but I offered the idea of a two year capital improvement budget for the city of Waseca and I feel we were much more effective. The event was interesting, I sat with Joe Repya who recently suspended his candidacy for Governor in the Independence Party - there seems to be a little infighting there. He is especially unhappy with Barkley courting the Tea-Party movement.
I hate to see Teresa Walters leave - she was a great Finance Director and helped the council stretch budgets more than seemed possible.
Now I get my weekend update from the Waseca County News and they tease that Crystal is a top contender for a position in Arizona? Say it ain't so Crystal!!!
I am working on an LGA piece that I hope will show the effects of LGA changes on total budgets and staffing levels.
That is all for now...well except for something shiny <http://www.curlingschool.com/manual/advanced_strategy.html> (post Olympic edition) and another shiny <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w> (Rube Goldberg edition).
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