At a special meeting on Thursday, May 14, the Clarion-Goldfield-Dows Board of Education took up an item that had been tabled during their regular meeting the Monday prior. The main topic was to discuss temporary assignments to perform high school principal duties.
Earlier this spring, current high school principal Sheila Hudson submitted her resignation. As Superintendent Dr. Bob Olson pointed out in the last meeting, the district has sought to conduct a search for that position, but it did not yield many applicants that the district thought were worthy of interviewing. Olson added that when the district attempted to recruit applicants for the permanent or even an interim position, there was little interest given the current climate. People were not willing to relocate. Olson said, “We need to have a credible search process for this, but we just cannot right now.”
Given those issues, a proposal was put before the board to have superintendent-elect Joe Nelson be the high school principal of record with Paul Hansch, current high school guidance counselor, acting as interim assistant- principal. Under this proposal, the two men would split the principal duties. Middle School Principal Steve Haberman would also be acting Hansch’s mentor.
The board had a lively debate on the issue. In the end, the proposal passed 3 votes to 2. Board members Troy Seaba and Beth Jackson voted no, and Cindy Dorn and Megan Ring voted yes. Board president Beth Severson broke tie and the item passed.
Severson was satisfied with the decision. She noted that Hansch as assistant principal would provide the district with “stability and consistency.” She added that they had also received staff recommendations for his hiring.
Olson explained that the district will re-advertise for the permanent principal position in December. In the meantime, Hansch will also still be acting in his guidance counselor position in addition to assistant principal duties.
In other business at the meeting, the board approved the hiring of Maycie Rector as Elementary 5th grade teacher and Jennifer Littlejohn as HS Special Education para-educator.
