Paton-Churdan will have a new shared superintendent for next school year.

Principal Annie Smith says at the March 11th meeting, the School Board approved hiring Southeast Valley Superintendent Brian Johnson as a shared superintendent, to replace the retiring shared P-C Superintendent Kreg Lensch. Smith tells Raccoon Valley Radio that at about the same time that Lensch made his announcement before winter break, the partner school district that the Rockets shared with Lensch was with Glidden-Ralston and that school district had decided to share with Coon Rapids-Bayard. She notes that it made sense for G-R to go with Coon Rapids because those school districts have shared other positions and programs. 

Smith points out that she was worried about finding a new superintendent because lots of individuals are leaving the education field, but those worries were washed away once word got out that P-C was searching for their new leader for the district.

“So when we started having different people approach, you know our school board president (Dave Palmer), myself and Mr. Lensch, it was like, ‘Wait, hey, this is great. Oh my gosh, that’s a great thing.’ It’s nice to have options and it’s just nice to know that there were so many people out there that wanted to consider Paton-Churdan.”  

Smith talks about some of the reasons why partnering with the Southeast Valley School District made a lot of sense, besides the geographic location.

“There’s a lot of complications in school finance. There’s something with operational sharing out there. Being able to share some key positions gives you some operational sharing incentives. So with Mr. Johnson coming (to P-C), the School Business Officer coming, and our HR (Human Resources) person, we’re able to really try to maximize that operational sharing funding.”      

Smith adds that Johnson will be shared one day per week, along with their School Business Official and Human Resources Director. Johnson will officially start with P-C on July 1st.