With the chronic shortage of school administrators, the Austin Public School District’s personnel committee isn’t wasting any time looking for a suitable candidate to replace Austin High School Principal Julie Espe.

Friday, April 21, 2000

With the chronic shortage of school administrators, the Austin Public School District’s personnel committee isn’t wasting any time looking for a suitable candidate to replace Austin High School Principal Julie Espe.

Espe’s last official day is June 30, but with vacation time, the reality of her departure may come sooner.

Superintendent Jim Hess said the district’s personnel committee set a tentative timeline for recruiting a replacement for Espe, who is leaving to take the same job in Lakeville, south of Minneapolis. The seven-year AHS principal informed the district of her decision April 11, the same day the Lakeville School Board formally approved her appointment.

"We have a detailed plan of how we’re going to do this," personnel committee member Bev Nordby said today. "It’s really an ambitious schedule, but – I hope – it’s going to move along real fast."

May 19 is the tentative application deadline for candidates, who will be interviewed first by a screening committee made up of one school board member, one teacher, one principal, one secretary, one coach, one educational assistant and one member of the district’s administrative union. District Human Resources Director Julie Jensen also will be a part of that committee.

From the screening committee, Hess expects a recommendation of three to five candidates who then will be interviewed by a different interview team, made up of Jensen, two school board members, one teacher, one principal, one food service employee, one member of the parent advisory committee, one student and one custodian. It will be their job to identify semifinalists for the position.

Once interviews are conducted here in Austin, it would be a prerogative of the school district to conduct site visits to the candidates’ school districts before making a final recommendation to the board.

While Hess expressed hopes that the recommendation would be ready by June, he stressed that the district wants to find the right person for the job after making a thorough search.

"It’s kind of scary with the shortage of administrators out there, but I hope there will be some good candidates left for us," Nordby said. "We’ll miss Julie, but we have to move on. It will be nice if we can find someone really dynamic to take her place."

Other board members of the personnel committee are Dave Simonson and Dick Lees.