SPPS names 3 finalists for superintendent with final selection in December

Three finalists have been named to be St. Paul Public Schools’ next superintendent.

The St. Paul school board and task force members met Thursday and revealed the candidates; the superintendent will be selected mid-December.

Finalists for the position are Dr. Brenda Cassellius, Dr. Rhoda Mhiripiri-Reed and Dr. Stacie Stanley.

John Thein has been serving as interim superintendent since May after the departure of Superintendent Joe Gothard, who left o lead the school district in Madison, Wis., where Gothard grew up and attended school. Thein also served as interim superintendent of St. Paul Public Schools from 2016 to 2017.

The district’s Board of Education selected and hired the executive search firm BWP & Associates in July to find the next superintendent. The board had interviewed three firms at a special meeting and unanimously chose BWP.

A task force conducted first-round interviews of superintendent candidates on Tuesday and Wednesday, which were closed to the public. The task force is made up of school board members, parents and community representatives from the district’s Parent Advisory Councils, employee labor group representatives, high school students and a district administrator.

In all, 21 candidates applied for the position, with the majority coming from Minnesota, according to the search firm. Seven semifinalists were interviewed by the task force.

The candidates

• Cassellius is CEO of Minnesota nonprofit Fresh Energy and previously served as superintendent of Boston Public Schools, according to SPPS. Cassellius lives in Minneapolis, according to Fresh Energy’s website. She also served as Minnesota State Commissioner of Education for eight years under Gov. Mark Dayton. Cassellius also has held leadership roles with Minneapolis Public Schools, East Metro Integration District and Memphis City Schools. She previously worked as a teacher in SPPS.

Cassellius has a doctorate in organizational leadership and policy from the University of Memphis, a master’s degree in secondary education from the University of St. Thomas and a bachelor’s degree in child psychology from the University of Minnesota.

• Mhiripiri-Reed has been superintendent of Hopkins Public Schools since 2017 and began her teaching career in SPPS. She has held leadership roles as associate superintendent at Monterey Peninsula Unified School District in Monterey, Calif., director of leadership development at the District of Columbia Public Schools in Washington, D.C., and the inaugural board chair for the nonprofit Black Men Teach.

Mhiripiri-Reed has a doctorate in education leadership from Harvard University, a master’s degree in education policy and administration from the University of Minnesota and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and teacher preparation from Yale University.

• Stanley is superintendent of Edina Public Schools and previously served as associate superintendent at Eden Prairie Schools. She is the president-elect of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators. Stanley has held leadership roles in Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District, Roseville Area Schools and East Metro Integration District.

Stanley has a doctorate in educational leadership from Bethel University, and master’s degree in education and a bachelor’s degree in K-8 elementary education from St. Catherine University.

Next steps

While task force members expressed satisfaction to the board Thursday with the candidates selected, members also said they would have liked to see more representation of community groups in the candidate pool.

By state statute, applicant names were considered private until they were named a finalist for the position.

Board members were provided with a leadership profile draft in October on which they had until the middle of that month to give feedback before accepting the final profile near the end of October.

Online community surveys to inform the profile were available from Sept. 23 to Oct. 2 and the firm hosted in-person and virtual meetings with staff, community groups, high school students and public forums Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. The deadline for superintendent candidate applications was Nov. 5.

Final candidates will be interviewed by the school board Dec. 16 to Dec. 18 in public meetings at 360 S. Colborne St. in St. Paul. The interviews also will be livestreamed. Each finalist will visit schools for a day and meet staff, students, parents and community partners before their public interview from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., according to the district. More information on those schedules will be shared the week of Dec. 9.

The board is expected to publicly select and announce a final candidate on Dec. 18 or Dec. 19 and the incoming superintendent’s start date will be decided during contract discussions after the district’s winter break, which goes through Jan. 3.

To learn more about the district’s superintendent search, go to spps.org/superintendentsearch.