More Time Needed for Osseo Superintendent Search

The Osseo School Board will need more time to choose a new superintendent to lead the state’s fifth largest school district.

The district has been working since last fall to find a replacement for Kate Maguire, who retires at the end of June. Wednesday night, board members decided there wasn’t enough support for either of the two finalists.

“I do not feel like I have strong support for either candidate, and would be willing to look at other options,” said board member Heather Douglass.

“I would also be supportive of taking another look,” said board member Jim Burgett. “That’s one of the things the community seems to feel strongly about.”

Out of the 28 people who applied for the job, it came down to finalists Erick Pruitt of Houston, Texas and James Harris of Douglassville, Pennsylvania.

Board Chair Mike Ostaffe says any new superintendent deserves strong support.

“They all had the ability to check a lot of the boxes off of what we were looking for in a new superintendent but not all of them,” said Ostaffe. “So there would have been a need to help them onboard and support them throughout that process. When I looked around to see what the other board members were thinking, I just didn’t believe there was the strong support to go through that process with those particular candidates.”

The board voted to put on hold any further work by a national search firm. In the meantime the district will search for an interim superintendent.

“We are looking for stability in this process,” said Ostaffe. “We are looking forward by saying we want to have stability while we regroup.”

It’s unclear how long an interim superintendent would be needed. The search process started six months ago. Ostaffe says the job of finding an interim started Thursday morning.