OK..so there is a lot of talk about the opening. The qualifications have apparently been changed so that NO ONE in Miles City qualifies to apply. That includes instructors who have faithfully taught for over 25 years! Anyone know who the school board members are? Anyone know about these changes to the qualifications?

I have checked the Miles City School's website and google and have been unable to find any listing of names of the members of the school board. This is one of the websites that have the position posted.
http://www.metnet.mt.gov/.../I031599CD As you can see, one of the requirements is that the applicant must have 3 years of superintendent experience. I do not recall applicants needing that particular qualification in past years. If I am incorrect, please let me know.

I think this is a new requirement for the school board, but I'm in favor of it.
There are several prinicpals that I have alot of respect for in this school system but don't think they would be a good choice as super at this time.
This school system needs a super who is good at making a budget, good at finding waste and good at building for the future. As in all job postings a person of lesser credentials may apply on the chance that no qualified applicants are taken.

The qualifications have apparently been changed so that NO ONE in Miles City qualifies to apply.

I think experience and training are important for qualifying for a job. Those that are truly interested in this career path may want to do some preparatory work to achieve their goals. Just my opinion!

CONSPIRACY! PLOTS!!! SPACE ALIENS!!!!

Shouldn't some people be more worried about the Billings school system, since that is where they live?

Seniority is always the best measure of competence.

Peter Principle, anyone?

You know, the school board meets regularly and the meeting times are posted in the newspaper. If you were to call the school district office, they could tell you who these strange shadow people are. Everything is open to the public if the public were to take the time to find things out and attend these meetings.

Peter Principle always deflates the seniority argument...Cannot have both...

Kay Carlson still loves to stir a pot and cause problems here, why don't you use knowledge and expertise to lobby in Billings.
I don't think we need your input here in miles city as you no longer live here or pay taxes.

Butt out

Bob

Amorette...YOU DO NOT KNOW EVERYTHING. Just because I no longer live in Miles City doesn't mean I have no ties to Miles City. And no..I don't need to explain them to you. It's none of your business.

[This message has been edited by Kacey (3/20/2012)]

Bob...the same goes for you. And all I was doing was asking a legitimate question about the school district where my grandchildren will be attending.
You are as rude as Amorette.

[This message has been edited by Kacey (3/20/2012)]

Seriously, the Billings School system is a huge mess! Compared to it, our little problems are just that. Little.

Wanting to hire an experience administrator is not a sin. And local residents can attend school board meetings every time they want to if they want input into the decisions the board makes.

Amorette, thank you for posting the information explaining how to contact the local school board members and where to find information regarding the school board meetings. An individual asked me if school board members' email addresses were available online and I could find no such information. I have to agree. If anyone has any concerns within the school district, I encourage you to contact the school board members or attend a school board meeting.

The following are school board members:

Chair--Bob Wagner
Matt Phillips
Jeff Donnelly
Erin Hould
David Fiechtner
Carol Bartholomew
Monty Lesh

Rural members are:
Scot Robinson
Fred Scheid
Jack McNamee
Don Hoffman

Amorette F. Allison it's "experienced" not experience administrators. Before you spell check others, spell check yourself.

[This message has been edited by Skye (3/20/2012)]

Oh, and after taking English classes, you can not start a sentence with And. It's not proper.

[This message has been edited by Skye (3/20/2012)]

Oh, snap.

One things for sure I do not know what that position makes but I'm sure it's to much for what they do.

Montanaman-
That's a pretty generic statement. I'm not sure what the pay is for that position but I knew it last year to the exact dollar and I don't remember putting my hand over my mouth in shock. It seems the majority of the people think that all people in a higher up management position believe the employee gets paid too much.

I certainly agree we need to be money consience but I also believe we need to hire the best person for the job and that may cost a little. I don't think it's so much about what the pay is rather it's "is the person earning their keep?".

Sounds like the board is only going to interview 2 candidates and that they will be open interviews by the whole board in a regular or special meeting. Here's your chance to get heard!

For what it's worth, Boards are generally given an agenda and pertainent info prior to the meeting to review. This helps keep the meeting moving. When they get to the meeting there may be a few things dicussed but mostly the Board member has an idea of how they will vote on an issue. If you wait until the meeting to voice your opinion chances are the Board member doesn't have adequate time to process this info and will set it aside and vote the way they were going to when they walked in the door. If you want your vioce heard and your information considered on an issue you'd have better results by contacting the Board member a few days prior to the meeting.

skye wrote:

yip yip yip yip yip

I'm so glad that the JV is doing their part to elevate the level of discourse.

No Bridgier that's not what I wrote, if your simple mind could read, you might be able to process the words. Let some of the other Elite mc.com'ers educate you with their "proper spelling and grammer lessons" because it is so forbidden to mispell a word or punctuate incorrectly! Have a blessed day!

Goddamn motherprocreateing elitists who went to college.

Why must you be a hater Gunnar? Your eagles have dodged the tebow-let (so far, the situation is in flux), shouldn't you be a little less envious?

Skye has spent many a year learning her letters and her numbers, bless her heart, and the least we can do is stand aside so that she might bring something new and interesting to the table that is mc.com.

I don't understand why a good topic always gets changed to people bashing. Can't you just start a "I hate your guts" or "Why can't you spell" thread?
Let's talk about the new superintendent! Isn't that the thread topic?

[This message has been edited by boxdmc (3/21/2012)]

Excellent point, boxdmc. I would like to know what has set Skye off on her little temper tantrum as well.

The last "outside" "experienced" superintendent the school system hired was Paul "Casey" Stengel and we all know how that turned out.

Darn elected school board, holding their public meetings, deciding it might be a good idea to bring an experienced superintendent with new ideas into our system.

{Sarcasm font in use}

You are forgetting Bob Richards who succeeded Mr. Stengel.

This decision should be about qualifications. Not whether you live here, work in the system or where you came from for that matter.
I understand there were 6 total applicants and 3 weren't qualified, 1 isn't going to be interviewed for unknown reasons and we will interview 2.
This is a Class A school and we only get 6 apps. What is going on here? We should have 100 apps from all over the country.

Maybe the listing isn't posted on a national job listing site. Maybe there were so many qualifications that few applied. Something smells like dog doo doo and it's not on my foot. I'm thinking there are some alterior motives or personal agendas here.

Most of the truly qualified for this position already have jobs, at a significantly higher salary.

I need an "on the nose" GIF for Richard.

[This message has been edited by Amorette F. Allison (3/22/2012)]

The ad on OPI's job site states that the applicant must have at least 3 year's superintendent's experience at a school with at least 500 students K-12. There are a couple of B schools that are that size, but not many. Taking that into consideration, then superintendents at A or AA schools would either be moving sideways or down. That explains why there were only 6 applicants.

--maybe--if the board does not hire anyone,they can hire Jack back as an interm superintendent like Billings did with Jack Copp--twice they hired him back.Thats a great way to live,collect a re-tirement paycheck and a interm paycheck.

Maybe I should have applied...I have not been a superintendent, but have been a Math director for a 7000-student for about 14 years. And I graduated from CCHS in 1966. Oh, but I now live in Texas. That might be a hard commute. However, bet I could manage the district because of my experience. I do not think one needs to have been a sup...I have on the ground training at the campus, district, and state levels.

Good luck, dear Miles City friends....

Maryann Mahoney McDaniel, ED.D

The two applicants are highly qualified and come with praises from their current districts. Why is everyone assuming only evil incompetents applied? Maybe the new superintendent, who is current on all the paperwork it takes to be a superintendent, will bring in fresh ideas and turn out to be great for Miles City, the way Casey Stengel was.

Why not wait before judging and deciding it is all an EVUL conspiracy.

letter to the editor in Mon. Star says it all !!!!!

I had Mr Hageman as a teacher at Sacred Heart. He was a class act and I had the upmost in respect for him. If he is half as good at administration as he was at teaching and conveying a sense of leadership, he would be a great choice.

If you guys have any trouble finding a superintendent, I think most people here would gladly let you have ours.

[This message has been edited by Forsyth Mike (3/27/2012)]

The board of trustees made a fine pick on Wed night. I sat through both interviews and support their decision. I'd still like to have seen more candidates but I'm confident we got a good one in Mr. Holmlund.
I stand corrected on the conspiracy theory.

Glad to hear it! From everything I've heard about Mr. Holmland, we are lucky to have him.

It's kind of funny reading the early post and now reading the later posts.....wow!

Looks like it is back to square one.

Yup. This was quite the topic of discussion at the Star. Housing apparently, was also part of the problem, so maybe we need to hire "in house" so they have a house.

Can't find a home or visited milescity.com?

I noticed quotes in the article tonight from the current superintendent and the chair of the school board, which is all well and good. But I'm left wondering, while this was "quite the topic of discussion at the Star", did anyone think to pick up the phone and call Mr. Holmlund for his comment before going to press?

Could it be that maybe Miles City isn't quite ready for a Canadian superintendent?

(that was for mule train)

LOL--hired based on his "enthusiasm and longevity," it seems candidate Andy Holmlund enthusiastically cut his stint as superintendent short at CCDHS. MC School Board: How does it feel to be used as a bargaining chip against the Ronan School District in order for Holmlund to pad his pockets? ha ha ha. http://www.milescitystar....php#story1

Too, right, buckaroo. Lazy, gumshoe journalism. And if attempts were made to reach Holmlund and he declined responding, that should have been noted in the article. I'm a journalist at the Billings Gazette and am astounded on a daily basis at the amount of fiction that appears in the STAR.

Please, Agatha, the Gazette is in no position to criticize other newspapers. Every time I read the print edition of the Gazette I am shocked by how little news is in it. It's no wonder your parent company filed for bankruptcy.

I had no idea he was from Ronan. Not sure if he deserves the credit, but Ronan has a spectacular sports facility completely unbefitting the community's apathy toward its sports and scholars.

The story was written by Don Cogger at 234-0450. He attempted to contact Mr. Holmland and was unable to do so.

@Amorette and David...
I think we are all in agreement that both the Star and Gazette are an abysmal use of ink. The bigger item at hand...how could our school board get behind a candidate who had no intention of leaving his current digs? What a time suck. It certainly doesn't bestow a lot of confidence in the board's decision-making process.

As "Agatha" alluded to, I think it's not uncommon for school administrators to play school districts (or universities) off of one another in the interest of boosting their compensation. If this guy was being insincere, why blame the school board?

Oh, and "Dayle", I see you and "Agatha" both created your milescity.com accounts today using an IP address out of Iowa, the home of Lee Enterprises, Inc. I'm sure that's just coincidence. If there's anything I can't stand is people creating multiple accounts here and playing "Sybil".

Just a thought, how do you tell if someone who filled out all the paperwork, showed up for the interviews and acts like he wants the job, real doesn't, as is suggested here. Reading the second story it states he turned down the CONTRACT when it was offered. He may have been hoping for a better offer or got offered more to stay or to go somewhere else, as a result, changed his mind.

@ David
In a nutshell, the school board is responsible for vetting their list of candidates too thin. Now they have to endure the entire process all over again, wasting time and resources. It will be curious to see how it all unfolds...

Another thing that piqued my curiosity...why not offer the position to the other candidate, Glen Hageman? It's my understanding that he has a wealth of experience, is well-regarded by the community and even taught in the district years ago.

Tell us more about yourself, "Dayle". Where do you live? Do you have kids in the Miles City School District? Do you attend the school board meetings? Have you ever served on a school board? Do you have experience conducting a statewide/nationwide search for a school superintendent? What qualifies you to speak on this matter?

@ David
I'll show you mine if you show me yours

I'm a journalist at the Billings Gazette and am astounded on a daily basis at the amount of fiction that appears in the STAR.

Really???

So why not move your sorry bell-cow ass to and show us how it is done?

And why doesn't the Gazette inform people when they log onto your website that they get a limited number of pages before it becomes pay-per-view? Where is the full disclosure?

Dayle wrote:

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours"

I'll take that as a sign that I should ignore what you and "Agatha" have to say about the superintendent search. If you have something to hide, your motives may not be entirely pure here.

David I laugh as you state that Agatha and Dayle show from Iowa, all the while you show from Washington. Are you sure where it says you are from that is where you are from???? I ask because I show as being from Wyoming. I did not say I was from WY when I signed up. By the way I am not in WY. If you are from WA you have a no bigger dog in the fight than the ones from Iowa. I just saw now that mine has changed to MT. That is correct.

Back to the subject at hand. I gotta wonder. Will Ronan now let Holmlund go? Did Holmlund not know what the salary and benefits were before he interviewed? If MC opens up the peramiters to include local people who are more than likely qualified, will these people tell the board to pound sand and not apply?

[This message has been edited by Skidoorulz (4/12/2012)]

David, I'd save the explanation, it's way over these two (not three) fools' heads.

Okay, folks, as a 1966 grad of CCHS with a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction, how do I proceed to apply? Bigger question, how do I go about finding housing in Miles City if hired?

How to apply? Call the School District office and ask that question.
How to find a house? Start with the real estate people but don't stop there. Network- ask everybody you come in contact with if they know of people who are considering selling and just knock on doors. Places are changing hands everyday and most people don't even have it on their radar.

has anyone heard what they are doing about the superintendent position? I heard that there were 6 ppl that applied this last time and it closed on May 1st.If the board can't find someone who fits thier picture of a superintendent, will Jack stay and get paid to be retired and paid to stay on as superintendent??

They are interviewing the supt.from Choteau and asst. supt. from Hardin. I believe you have to have a master's in school adminastration to qualify. You certainly meet the level of education and more so but it doesn't appear to be in the area of school admin.

The Board extended an offer to Keith Campbell from Hardin for a position as Superintendent last night. I'm not sure if they've ironed out the formalities yet.