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The Pipestone Area School (PAS) Board during its May 22 meeting approved with a 5-2 vote hiring Klint Willert as interim superintendent for the 2023-24 school year.
School Board Chair Brad Carson said the negotiations committee, which included him, Daphne Likness and former school board member Randy Erdman, met with two interim superintendent candidates presented by the Minnesota School Boards Association (MSBA). He said the board chose not to interview a third candidate and that both of those who were interviewed were strong candidates with a wealth of experience.
Carson said the negotiations committee was split with two members in favor of Willert and one in favor of the other candidate. When it came time for the full board to vote, Likness and Katie Wiese cast the two votes against hiring Willert.
Willert was most recently the superintendent of the Brookings School District. According to news reports, he was given the option to resign or be terminated from that position in March after eight years with the school district. News outlets in the area reported that he was given that option after a poor evaluation.
Carson said MSBA looked into Willert’s background and that he contacted his references and talked to people in the school district and he found no reason not to hire him. Carson said he knew there might be concerns about the way Willert left Brookings, but that he thought he had too much experience and was too qualified not to offer him the position.
Before Brookings, Willert was the superintendent at Brainerd and before that he was at Marshall Public Schools.
Willert will begin working for the PAS July 1. MSBA was working on a contract for Willert and the school board authorized Carson to sign the contract when it was ready. The motion approved by the board included that Willert’s salary would not exceed the amount Superintendent Kevin Enerson was scheduled to make for the 2023-24 school year, which was $149,500.
Enerson was selected as the next superintendent of the ROCORI School District, which includes the communities of Rockville, Cold Spring and Richmond, earlier this year. The school board hired MSBA to assist in the search for a new superintendent and suspended that search in April, opting to hire an interim superintendent for the 2023-24 school year and resume the search for a permanent superintendent next year in hopes of having a larger candidate pool to choose from.
