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After 13 years, Mike Funk will no longer lead Albert Lea Area Schools as superintendent, as board members accepted his letter of resignation Tuesday night during a special board meeting session.

Before that, they were treated to a special presentation from Jeff Olson and Barb Dorn of the Minnesota School Boards Association. The MSBA was hired to lead the search for the next superintendent. Dennis Dieser and Jill Marin attended remotely.

The first thing to know about the upcoming process is that there’s an open meeting law and a date of practices act, meaning throughout the search members will be talking about private information in a public meeting, as every part of the search for a new superintendent has to be done in an open session. That includes trainings, selection of finalists and even the interviews themselves and deliberations following them. 

But because of private information, all applications for the position will be accessible to board members electronically. They will also be available in hard copies in the district office. And because it’s private data, names of candidates won’t be revealed until finalists are selected.

The next thing is the relevant dates in the timeline for a new hire.

According to Olson, there will be an online stakeholder survey that will be open this Thursday through April 28.

“It’s a survey that we use pretty consistently with all of the superintendent searches,” Olson said. 

According to Olson, once the survey is completed, the MSBA will review it to create a synopsis of the survey that will include the top traits, skills and abilities that respondents are looking for in a superintendent. A link to the survey is expected to be on the district’s website, but parents and staff can also look for it in email communications.

There will be a virtual information meeting (a question-and-answer session) hosted by MSBA at 4 p.m. April 27, but there should be a recorded session on the district’s website the next day. There will then be two hours of interview training, discussion of the stakeholder report and a look at interview questions and interview procedures. That meeting will be at 5 p.m. May 5 at the Brookside Education Center in the board room at 211 W. Richway Dr. At that point, Olson and his team will have a prepared set of questions based, in part, on the results of the stakeholder survey.

The position will be posted between Thursday and May 10 and can be found through Revelus. Advertisements will be listed on the MSBA website, the Minnesota Association of School Administrators website and EdPost.

“There are people who are probably already looking for this position to be posted,” Olson said.

At that time, MSBA will conduct screenings and preliminary verifications of references to establish a pre-interview list of recommended applicants.

At 5 p.m. on May 17, the MSBE will meet with the board virtually to present its list of recommended candidates. Board members have the option whether to accept the candidates. That meeting will also be in the board room.

First round interviews will be May 23 and 24 starting at 4 p.m., and second round interviews with finalists (where candidate names are revealed publicly) will be May 26, also at 4 p.m. 

The board agreed to use the results of the stakeholder survey to determine candidates for the second round of interviews. 

“People are used to surveys and work online, probably from the pandemic,” Olson said. “But the other piece behind that is everybody’s on an equal footing when you have that survey result. You haven’t given any extra time or attention to a particular individual or individuals.”

All the board members argued using a search committee made up of stakeholders to determine the finalists — which was another option — would be silly when they could use the results of the survey. 

May 27 negotiations on a contract will commence in a closed meeting, and the only member of the board that will participate is Skaar. Approval for an employment contract will be June 6 during their regularly scheduled 5 p.m. meeting. A background check will be conducted before the finalist is offered the position. 

Board member Kim Nelson suggested the special education cooperative with Austin Schools be included under a point of pride, and Neal Skaar suggested MSBE highlight the district’s College in the Schools program, which allows students to earn college credit while still in high school.

In discussing salary language options, board members agreed to a comprehensive compensation package to be negotiated commensurate with experience and qualifications.

“If we get somebody with not a lot of experience and then we throw out a package that’s quite a bit less than what Dr. Funk is making, then I just don’t want somebody coming in and saying, ‘Well, this is what Dr. Funk made, that’s what I should get,” Dieser said in explaining his reasoning listing potential salary. 

Board members agreed they wanted to see how applicants responded to a question pertaining to school finance, as well as a response on building a successful administrative team.

Dorn stressed the importance of board ownership throughout the process.