Beacon Academy Supt. Sean Koster; Jackson County Central Schools Supt. Barry Schmidt and Osakis Supt. Randall Bergquist were selected to return for interviews to be held Monday, March 20 and Tuesday, March 21.

Initially, the plan was to narrow the list of candidates down to two finalists but the school board and community board were split between two candidates.

Before the seven members of the school board conducted the first round of interviews, a special community board interviewed each candidate. The community board included 12 individuals representing the district.

Following the interviews, the community board voted Koster and Schmidt as their top candidates.

Schmidt

The school board’s top selections were Koster and Bergquist.

Since there was consensus between the two boards, Koster was a finalist candidate early, with the board debating whether to bring back Schmidt or Bergquist for a second interview.

The community board strongly favored Schmidt with 10 members voting yes. Only three of the school board members were a strong yes for Schmidt.

The community board was evenly split between Bergquist, with six voting yes and six voting no. The school board voted five yes and two maybe votes for Bergquist.

School Board member Christie Dewanz said she was okay with having three candidates for the final interview. She believed they could see something different with another interview.

Koster

School Board member Jonathan Schiro also favored going forward with three candidates. He thought the stark split with the community board was unusual and felt better bringing back three instead of two.

The school board unanimously agreed to bring Koster, Schmidt and Bergquist back for another round of interviews. The next round of interviews will use questions created by the school board.

The interviews will be held in two weeks. Two interviews will start at 4 p.m. Monday, March 20 and the third held at 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 21. All interviews will be held at the New Ulm High School.