Osseo School District Names 5 Finalists for Superintendent Job
The Osseo Area School District has operated under interim superintendents since Kate Maguire retired last summer. But after receiving applications from 20 people for the job, the school board hopes to find her permanent successor among a list of five people in the next two weeks.
“This really important decision is the one decision we are hired to do as a board,” said Mike Ostaffe, the chair of the Osseo Area School Board. “It’s the biggest thing that we do. We’re hiring, basically, the CEO of a $320 million business that has 3,300 employees and 21,000 customers. So it’s a huge challenge. It’s a huge responsibility and I think everybody’s looking forward to it.”
The school district hired a local search firm to help find the candidates.
During a special school board meeting last Friday, the board narrowed the list down to five candidates who will go through the first round of interviews this week.
The candidates are:
- Eric Knost, the current superintendent of the Rockwood School District in Missouri. He’s the only out-of-state person being considered for the job.
- Ryan Laager, superintendent of Belle Plaine Public Schools.
- Cory McIntyre, associate superintendent of the Anoka-Hennepin School District.
- Lisa Sayles-Adams, assistant superintendent of St. Paul Public Schools.
- Steve Troen, director of teaching and learning from the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District.
Unlike last year’s search when the board couldn’t rally behind any one candidate, Board Chair Mike Ostaffe says this year is different.
“I think the biggest thing that we learned from last year was to get out in front of the rest of the school districts who are looking for superintendents,” Ostaffe said. “So last year we didn’t go out until early February. This year we are out in the middle of December. So we’re able to get a very good pool. A pool of candidates that isn’t already underway with three or four other school districts.”
The first round of interviews kicked off today and continues tomorrow. All finalist interviews are open to the public and webstreamed via the district website.
The board hopes to narrow down the list to one to three candidates for the second round, which is next week.
The goal would be to have a superintendent picked shortly after the second round of interviews is complete.
