The Daily News

The Breckenridge School Board heard from two superintendent consultant firms during its Monday meeting — McPherson & Jacobson LLC out of Grand Forks and ADM Group, LLP, Owatonna, Minn.

Gary Schnellert, a consultant for McPherson & Jacobson, presented to the board the firm's process if chosen to assist in hiring a superintendent.

"We basically provide a service that's proven, that’s tried and it works very well," Schnellert said.

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Schnellert said the company will help choose the types of skills the superintendent should possess. They’ll also get input from the community, students, faculty and staff, and do background checks when applications come in. If the board chooses, they can go through a final phase and have McPherson & Jacobson help them decide on criteria with which the superintendent will be evaluated.

If the person hired does not work out within the first year, McPherson & Jacobson will do the process over at their expense, minus travel expenses, Schnellert said.

"You have a big decision to make and there's a lot of cost involved if you make an error," he added.

McPherson & Jacobson would charge $6,500 plus expenses. If the board chose to have the firm help them with evaluation criteria, they’d pay an extra $1,000. This firm is also contracted to consult Wahpeton in its search for a new superintendent.

ADM Group was the consulting firm Breckenridge hired in 2008 to hire an interim superintendent. Keith Klein and Rosemary Schneiderhan said, if selected, they would meet with the board and include the community, staff, faculty and others in their search. They’d use any feedback to identify desired traits in a superintendent and help in screening and recruiting superintendents.

"We strongly recommend input from the community and staff, but it doesn't have to be done that way," said Schneiderhan. "We can sit down and discuss it and the board will be doing the selecting."

Klein said the advantage the firm has over others is they've worked with several districts in Minnesota doing studies for staffing and management and consulting on administrative hires. The firm processes all materials and recommends the board does the complete search. Everyone who applies the firm will check up on, Klein said.

"We've done more searches in Minnesota than all other search firms combined," Schneiderhan said. "We like to be thorough and make recommendations with hard work."

During the interview process, ADM would help with development of questions, communication with candidates, onsite interviews, facilitating, giving input on which questions to ask, desired traits, qualifications and structuring of questions.

"It's wise to start early," Schneiderhan said. "Some [districts] will start later and be interviewing the same people."

ADM charges $6,000 plus expenses, and there is a $2,000 cap on expenses.

The board decided to hold a special meeting Thursday, Nov. 19 at 6 p.m. where they will discuss which firm to hire.

In other business:

• The Breckenridge School Board approved the Robotics Team to attend a regionals competition in Arkansas and to establish an financial account during its Monday meeting. Siri Manning and Alexis Olson, members of the team and seniors, presented the request to the board.

"It's a real hands-on experience of physics, design and to build and program our own robot," Manning said. The students worked on the robot for the first six weeks of school and placed second in the Bison BEST Robotics competition. Watertown, S.D., placed first — both are first time competitors.

The team is currently working to raise $9,000 to go on the trip, which will be Dec. 2-5.

Manning emphasized there are many students interested in joining the group next year, which inspired the current group to ask for support in organizing the team as a club.

• The Elementary-Middle School will hold a Veteran's Day Program Wednesday at 11 a.m. It will include the Breckenridge Boy Scouts demonstrating flag etiquette and protocols, a few musical numbers, and they are working to get a veteran to speak.

“All veterans are very, very proud of their service and wanted to pass it to the next generation,” said social studies teacher Paul Whitney.

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