Education

Billings School Board digs into superintendent applicants

Posted: Feb 9, 2010 9:53 PM by Jay Kohn

BILLINGS - The Billings School Board started the process Tuesday of narrowing down the list of potential candidates to become the next superintendent of School District Two. Current Superintendent Jack Copps plans to step down at the end of this school year, after four years on the job.

On Tuesday night trustees broke up into small groups to begin going thru the resumes of 22 applicants. The board's commitment to conduct a nationwide search for the district's top job, apparently paid off with candidates applying from 12 states, and one from Canada. The applicant list includes six from Montana, three from Texas, two from California, and one each from Alaska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Oregon, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Arizona and Alberta, Canada.

School board chairman Malcolm Goodrich says the new superintendent's salary will be in the $140,000 to $160,000 range. "That frankly is well with in what we will need to get a competent administrator," said Goodrich. "All our neighboring states have superintendants that are earning that or perhaps more. You got to remember that this person is supervising 2800 employees, fourteen to fifteen thousand students, and has an operating budget of one hundred million dollars. It takes a pretty strong individual to be able to do that," added Goodrich.
The list of candidates from Montana includes Laurel Superintendent Josh Middleton, Helena Assistant Superintendent Keith Myer, and superintendents Glenn Hageman of Glasgow, Andrew Holmlund of Ronan, Jefferson County High School Superintendent Jim Whealon, and Great Falls High School Principal Fred Anderson.
The board plans to narrow the list down to between five and seven finalists, who will then be brought to Billings to meet the public and interview with the school board.
Goodrich says he hopes a new superintendent can be hired within the first couple weeks of March.