The Daily News

At the end of June, Mike Connell will retire, relinquishing his position as superintendent of Wahpeton School District. As Connell enters the final 143 days of his successful 21-year term, he said, "For the most part it’ll be business as usual."

Connell outlined some of the projects he will monitor, including hiring a new science teacher, installing new floors at the middle school, and a water issue on the west side of the middle school.

"As soon as the snow melts we're going to be working with an engineer on a water drainage project over there," he said. "It's kind of a controversial issue so that's going to take some time to get resolved. I also want to spend some time with the new superintendent, to make the transition smooth."

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Of his five potential successors, Connell said, “I’ve spent some time with all of them... I think we’ve had good candidates. I think it’ll be a pretty smooth transition.”

Connell reflected on his accomplishments as superintendent, including the successful passing of bond issue referendums, overcoming financial problems and struggles, coping with increasing state and federal regulation, and keeping Wahpeton competitive technologically.

“When I came here we maybe had a couple dozen computers,” Connell said. “Now we have 650. And they were all stand-alone. Now they’re all network.”

There is one project that Connell is especially proud of the memorial to the veterans at the high school for Wahpeton students who have been killed in war, from The Great War through Iraq today.

"It took me about three years to do the research for that,” Connell said. “I have a soft spot for veterans. I think there's far too much apathy toward veterans and what veterans do and the sacrifices that they've made. I wanted to do that to remind particularly kids that these people gave their lives for you. You should honor them, you should recognize them, you should appreciate them."

After Connell retires June 30, he plans to fish his way to Alaska.

"I'm buying a topper for the back of my pickup, building a bed back there, and I'm going to fish my way through Montana, up through British Columbia, the Yukon, all the way to Fairbanks," he said. "Then... I'm going to go elk hunting in Wyoming. When I'm done with that I'll have to decide what I'm going to do when I grow up."

Connell said he has no other professional plans.

Despite having the option to renew his contract for another year, Connell chose to retire simply because he's eligible now. He explained that in North Dakota you can retire when your age and years of service equal 85. He wants to pursue his interests outside work while he is still in good health and has energy.

“This has been a fun job for me. I've enjoyed it," he said. "I found the job to be a lot of things, certainly interesting, fun, sometimes stressful, sometimes frustrating, particularly with state and federal regulations and things like that." However, he also found it to be time consuming, causing him to sacrifice a lot of free time to work.

On the eve of his departure, Connell attests there is little left undone. All the buildings are older and require ongoing maintenance costing large amounts of money. However, he said there's nothing major or pressing at this point.

"We're in pretty good shape. We don't have any huge cloud or controversy hanging over us," he said.

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