The Buffalo-Hanover-Montrose School Board accepted former assistant principal Brandon Prell’s resignation on April 28, 2014. The school has already begun the search for the next assistant principal.
“We have posted that we are looking for a new assistant principal for the past 10 days,” said Principal Mark Mischke, “and the posting was removed Tuesday night (May 14). After the 10 days we had 105 applicants. We would like to employ someone by July 1 for the 2014-2015 school year.”
The process of hiring a new assistant principal is long and somewhat complicated.
Mischke outlined the extensive process, explaining, “After all of the applicants have applied and we close the posting. I begin going through the applications with Pam Miller (Director of teaching and learning) and Moreen Martell (Human Resource director) and narrow it down to 25 people to begin interviewing. Out of those 25 we do phone interviews and then narrow it down even more to 6-8 people. With those people we then do in person interviews. Pam Miller, Moreen Martell, Mrs. Thompson, one elementary principal, one middle school principal and myself do the interviewing. After that we do more in depth phone interviews with around 6 of the applicants to learn more about them and really get all the information we can about that person. Usually every applicant gets to continue on with the process by having a large group interview, consisting of, two parents, two students (Junior Kirsten Olson and Junior Ryan Bunting), teachers, admin team, a cook, a para and, a custodian. I then sit down with Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Martell to discuss who the two finalists should be. After we pick the two finalists we then travel to their school where they will have picked students, teachers and parents for us to interview about them and get to know how they really are in a school environment. We should be done with this whole process around June 3rd.”
“The students that were chosen for the position of interviewing the applicants, were chosen due their involvement and positive impact on the school. I felt that they would take this seriously and share their honest opinion and not be afraid to talk or ask questions” said Mischke.
After seeing middle school assistant principal John Hayden and High Potential Services Coordinator Ed Cox around the school, rumors have started that one of those two will be taking the position of the next assistant principal. Mischke addressed these rumors.
“This is not the case at all. These two have been helping around the school because of the shortage of staff now that Mr. Prell is no longer employed here. It has been extremely helpful and I’m very thankful for the extra help.” said Mischke.
