School Board accepts resignation of assistant principal

The Glencoe-Silver Lake School District will be searching for a new assistant principal for its Lakeside Elementary School in Silver Lake.
At a special meeting Monday morning, the School Board accepted the resignation of Diane Schultz, who has been the assistant principal at Lakeside for two years. Superintendent Chris Sonju said Schultz has accepted a position as a principal with the Albert Lea School District. Her resignation is effective June 30.
School Board Member Donna VonBerge expressed concern about the turnover at Lakeside.
“Why do we keep losing good people?” she asked.
Sonju said the position at Lakeside is for an assistant principal, rather than a principal, which he said means a large difference in salary.
Board Chair Clark Christianson said the school district adopted the assistant principal format because of budgetary confines.
“It’s something we can talk about in future meetings,” said Christianson of the possibility of making the position a principal, rather than an assistant principal position.
Sonju agreed with Christianson that the decision to have an assistant principal was a budget decision.
“We needed to balance our administration with the number of students in our district,” said Sonju.
Sonju said that an assistant principal’s salary “isn’t anywhere close” to what a principal makes.
Board Member Jason Lindeman also said the district’s proximity to the Twin Cities area, where salaries are higher, makes it hard for the district to compete in terms of salary.

For more, see the May 20 print edition of The Chronicle.