Albert Lea board, MSBA set timeline, salary range for superintendent search

Albert Lea Public School District trustees on Jan. 24 met with Minnesota School Boards Association consultant Barb Dorn to set the timeline and key parameters for the district's superintendent search, including public posting dates, community survey windows, interview dates and a salary range.

Dorn, identified herself as an MSBA superintendent-search consultant, told the seven-member board that Minnesota's open-meeting law and the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act require most search steps to be conducted in public and that candidate application materials that contain private data must remain confidential until and unless a candidate is named as a finalist.

The board approved a schedule Dorn laid out: post the opening at the end of January, open the public and staff survey Jan. 29–Feb. 19, hold a recorded informational Q&A for the public on Feb. 6, conduct interview training for board members Feb. 27, determine finalists March 18, hold a full-day first round of interviews March 26, hold second-round interviews March 30 (late afternoon) and begin negotiations on April 1 with the goal of bringing an employment contract for board approval at the April 7 regular meeting.

The district will accept applications through March 4, Dorn said; board members will receive secure access to application materials in the MSBA cloud on March 6. Dorn also described MSBA's customary vetting — including pre-interviews, reference checks and social-media sweeps — and said the search firm will recommend semifinalists but the board retains final authority to decide who to interview.

Board members and staff settled several procedural choices. The board opted not to fund early focus groups or listening sessions beyond the anonymous survey and MSBA's “search preview” meetings for internal stakeholder leadership. Dorn said MSBA will provide the public survey in English and Spanish (and will add an additional language if the district supplies a translation before the tool is launched). The board also agreed MSBA's consultant will participate virtually for the Feb. 27 and March 18 meetings, avoiding an added in-person fee.

On compensation, trustees discussed comparable districts and multiple proposed ranges before coalescing around a published salary range of $170,000 to $195,000 for the vacancy brochure. Board members said the range establishes a minimum and maximum required by recent statute while negotiations could still be shaped by the candidate’s background and the final contract.

For application screening, the board chose two open application questions (items 2 and 3 from MSBA's suggested list): a question about a candidate’s leadership initiatives and a question tying the candidate’s experience to the district's leadership profile. Dorn noted the statutory definition of “finalist” requires that names of those selected for interview become public.

Other administrative choices were recorded as “to be determined”: whether to run MSBA’s more extensive national background checks (Baker Eubanks at MSBA cost), and whether to place paid national advertising beyond MSBA’s standard posting. The board directed district staff to help publicize the survey and vacancy brochure once MSBA finalizes the posting materials.

The meeting concluded with a voice vote to adjourn; the motion passed with all members saying "aye."