Dave Robinson, vice president of the Williston school board, announced his resignation Wednesday night at a special school board meeting.
In his resignation, Robinson said that he had been offered a new position in Bemidji, Minn. with the Thrifty White Corporation. He also said that it had been his extreme pleasure and privilege to serve the students, faculty and staff of the district. His resignation will be effective July 31st.
The agenda of the school board meeting was to originally deal only with administrative staffing issues, specifically finding an interim superintendent and hiring a business manager. Dr. Kent Hjelmstad, a professor at the University of North Dakota, was invited to the meeting to help provide solutions to the issue of a superintendent. The board supported his suggestion of creating an administrative team of leaders to assist the school district. The team would consist of himself and two other members.
“The goal would be to keep you (the district) on track with what you have been doing and what you would like to do,” Dr. Hjelmstad said. In their motion to support Hjelmstad’s solution, they made the stipulation that a representative from both the financial committee and the personnel committee to negotiate with Hjelmstad and his team. This addition to the motion was added so that the administrative team would be kept in line with the wishes of the district.
Dr. Hjelmstad and his team will serve approximately 180 to 200 days. The cost to the board will be between $130,000 and $150,000, or the cost of one superintendent. Dr. Hjelmstad also has the credentials required of a superintendent, which means the district won’t lose any funding.
The board also voted to extend the offer of business manager to Connie Blatherwick of Bottineau. Chris Kittleson, principal of Williston High School, gave a report outlining the qualifications of Blatherwick. She has had 22 years of experience at business managing in an educational setting and also has an educational accounting background. According to Kittleson, Blatherwick is familiar with the software used by the district and mill levies, alleviating the board’s concern of a long learning curve. Some members of the board, however, felt left out of the hiring process and wished that they were included in the interviews. They felt like they didn’t know who they were hiring and expressed a desire to meet Blatherwick. Dr. Hjelmstad gave a personal recommendation of Blatherwick to the board since he had worked with her in the past.
The next school board meeting will be held Thursday, July 24 at 5 p.m. in the district board room.
Comments
In the know wrote on Jul 17, 2008 4:31 PM:
Clean house get rid of the admin that is creating most of the problems who have no clue what they are doing nor what they should be doing. ONE left on his own help a couple others fiind their boxes.
Williston has gone from being a good school to being just a school. We are giggled at across the state yet we continue to encourage the bizarre. We bring out of state people who couldn't find jobs in the east we hire people to fill position when we have excellent people on staff who don't even rate an interview We have people 1500 miles away running what they couldn't control in town.
IS THERE ANYONE on that board that can think for themselves???? "