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Former APS superintendent will guide Albert Lea district until permanent superintendent can be hired

 

The Albert Lea school board voted unanimously Friday in a special meeting to hire retired Austin Public Schools Superintendent David Krenz as interim superintendent for the district until a new full-time superintendent is selected.

The board action will be contingent upon a mutually agreed upon employment agreement and criminal background check.

Krenz was one of two external candidates considered by the board for the interim role. The candidates met on Thursday with a committee made up of three board members: Gary Schindler, Dave Klatt and Angie Hoffman.

When asked whether the name of the second candidate could be released, board Chairwoman Kim Nelson said they could not as they didn’t want to add any potential bias to further opportunities that the individual may have. She said no internal candidates came forward for the position.

Krenz retired in 2021 in Austin after serving the district as superintendent for 12 years. Prior to that, he worked as superintendent of Wabasha-Kellogg Public Schools and LaCrescent-Hokah Public Schools. He has also served as a high school principal and director of technology for Colby Public Schools, Pulaski Public Schools and the Wausau School District in Wisconsin.

Schindler said he, Klatt and Hoffman had a consensus that Krenz would be the best fit for the district.

Schindler said he had the pleasure of working with Krenz on some community projects when he worked in his former role at Riverland Community College. He also noted when they talked with Krenz, he appreciated that his role would be to mentor staff — there are three relatively new individuals in district leadership positions — and in helping the district achieve its goals already in place.

Hoffman said she thought both were good candidates, but she felt like the tipping point for her was that they knew the most about Krenz and Krenz knew the most about the Albert Lea district, which could give him a head start in the position.

Klatt said he had the opportunity to work with Krenz on the shared special education collaborative. He described Krenz as a “calm leader,” who had a good perspective on the interim position, in both mentoring and with onboarding of a new superintendent.

Board member Neal Skaar said he hoped the interim superintendent would be a person who wouldn’t be aggressively introducing new things to the district and instead would pursue the strategic plan already in place.

He also asked what the board might expect for a salary for the position.

Schindler said they will likely have a contract with a set number of days Krenz would work from January through May and possibly into June, as well as a daily rate and a stipend to offset expenses for driving to the district and a cell phone.

The next step would be to put together that package with Paul Durbahn, executive director of finance and operations, and Ashley Mattson, executive director of Human Resources for the district.

Klatt said it would be an arrangement similar to what the district had done with Kathy Niebuhr, who did some consulting work for the district after her retirement.

Board member Bruce Olson thanked the committee that spoke with the candidates and shared their reasons for why they recommended Krenz.

Nelson said she thought the timeliness of the process had been good for the district and that they were able to publicly come to a resolve. She said the process had been thoughtful and had the goal of doing what is best for students and staff.

She said there will be an announcement in place when the contract has been negotiated and Krenz will be ready to start in the district.

The action comes as the board parted ways with Superintendent Ron Wagner in December, voting to place him on paid administrative leave through the end of June and to let his contract expire without renewal.  

Once the interim is in place, the board will work with the Minnesota School Board Association later this month to begin the search process for a full-time replacement. That process will be more extensive with time for more public involvement.