Triton board begins process of hiring new superintendent

Duane Bartel took his seat on the Triton School Board Monday night after being sworn in by Board Chair Jim Jensen. Bartel was appointed to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of board member Rodney Dostal.

With the formality of the swearing in over, the board turned its attention to the search for a replacement for Supt. Brett Joyce, who is retir- ing at the end of the school year, and to approving the tax levy for 2019 and hearing a report on the district audit for the 2017-2018 school year.

After considering several options, board members agreed that the district would conduct its own search for a new superintendent.

At the November meeting, a committee comprised of Jensen and Board members Lloyd Henslin Jr. and Rebecca Knutson was named to review the processes available for replac- ing Joyce. Among the options presented were hiring a search firm to conduct a full search, hire a search firm to do a limited search, have the Triton board do the search, have the district search internally for a superintendent or work with the Minnesota School Board Association to find a superintendent.

Jensen said that information received from search firms indicated it could cost $8,000 plus to have a firm do the work of advertising for and screening candidates for the board to consider. He added that he did not believe the board had the money to spend for a search given the financial condition of the district and the fact that the board would be looking at cuts to balance the 2019-2020 budget.

The district will post the position immediately, board members decided, and accept applications for 30 days after which they will review the applications and select the can- didates they wish to interview.

The board also approved a 2019 tax levy of $2,154,144.95, a 3.27 percent increase over the current levy. The tax will be levied in 2018 and payable in 2019. The audit report for the past year showed the district came within $32,000 of having a bal- anced budget. After adjusting the General Fund to cover the $32,000 the fund balance cur- rently stands at $1,093,582.

Board members also approved a resolution establishing a combined polling place at the Dodge Center City Hall for those school district elections not held on the day of a statewide election. The reso- lution was necessary because if a combined polling place were not selected the district would have to provide polling places in each precinct in the district.

In other actions the board,

• Authorized students to attend the Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center trip in January of 2020;
• Approved the Dodge Coun- ty Independent as the official newspaper of the district for the current year;
• Approved the resignation of Mike Ellingson as head baseball coach and Sam Storlie as 8th grade baseball coach;
• Approved extra-curricular contracts for Jill Gandrud, Kristen Tischer, Allison Horejsi, Monica Maloney, Cherie Haas, Laura Lee, Haley Rossi and Anne Schreiber;
• Approved a maternity leave for Laura Rud;
• Approved contracts for Tammy Fate as Business Office administrative assistant, Deb Groll as payroll clerk/accounts payable/insurance and Patty Braeger as Business Office administrative assistant/ accounts payable.