School Board to Interview All Candidates June 29

The Mehlville school board will be back at seven members as early as June 30, and as late as July 1. The candidate selected will serve in until April 2012, when the position will be up for grabs in the local election.

In a Saturday meeting to decide the selection process , the board set June 29 at 6:30 p.m. in the Mehlville High School Library to interview all applicants.

The following day, they will then have a debriefing and selection meeting at the same time in the administration building. If more time or interviews are necessary, the board will use the June 30 meeting as a second interview and discussion period and July 1 at 6:30 p.m. as the final selection date.

“If it did happen that after the 29th, you all felt the 30th needed to be for more interviews, then we could get together for a smaller selection session on Friday,” said Deputy Superintendent Eric Knost.

Each interview will be limited to 20 minutes and include an opening and closing statement from each candidate. The board also asked Lisa Counts with the district’s Human Resources department to develop approximately five questions to ask the candidates in their interviews.

At the meeting, the board brainstormed topics that would populate the questions. Knost said he would then take these areas of interest to Counts to formulate questions.

“I would like to hear about the overall view of the district finances, whether or not we think the budget should range upward or downward in the future, and if so how?” Mark Stoner said.

Elaine Powers said candidates should consider board dynamics and how they would fit in with the relationship of the current board. She suggested they expand on their relationships with parents, teachers, administrators and the greater rank and file of the community. Powers also said applicants should consider if they are looking at the fill-in position as long or short term.

“I think we always need to be looking at thoughts on curriculum and student achievement, making sure our kids are getting —that we’re delivering a competitive education,” she said. 

Board member Rich Franz was the first to mention technology development and said he wanted applicants to discuss the evaluation process currently in place for employees and what ideas they might have to change it.

Applicants will go before the board one at a time and be secluded from the meeting until it is their turn to be questioned. They will be interviewed in the order in which they applied: Ken Leach, David Wessel, Michael Gindler, Greg Frigerio, Timothy Champion, Marea Kluth-Hoppe, Fred Padberg, Aaron Hilmer and Ronald Fedorchak.

A tenth candidate, Gary “Brit” Rose, was the first to apply, but has since withdrawn his application.

Editor’s Note: Patch will be at both meetings, as well as the third if necessary. Follow @MehlvillePatch on Twitter or visit our Facebook page for live updates.