Stillwater Schools Assistant Superintendent Ray Queener is Semifinalists for Burnsville Position

Stillwater Area School District's Assistant Superintendent Ray Queener is a finalist for the Burnsville superintendent's position.

The Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District received 31 total applications, and on Monday the recruiting firm School Exec Connect narrowed the field to five top contenders, all of whom are "squeaky clean" with "no skeletons in the closet."

The firm presented the slate to the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage Board of Education on Monday.

Kenneth Dragseth, of School Exec Connect, told the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School Board that Queener is in his eighth year as assistant superintendent, a role in which he mainly focuses on administrative services, specifically human resources and finance. At one time he was director of finance at Burnsville's neighbor, Independent School District 196.

"He's been a teacher himself, been in the classroom," Dragseth said. "He's highly respected for keeping the district moving. He's lived through lots of changes."

Queener is well-liked by staff, Dragseth said, and a hard worker. According to his peers in Stillwater, he also has a particular talent for selling the district. 

The other four candidates for the position are:

• Joe Gothard, assistant superintendent of the Madison Metropolitan School District
• Darren Kermes, executive director of the Carver-Scott Educational Cooperative (CSEC), also known as District 930, which provides services to non-traditional students and those with special education needs, from early childhood into adulthood.
• Dr. Teri Staloch, assistant superintendent of Osseo Area Schools; and
• Robert Slotterback, superintendent of the Richfield School District.

The Burnsville Board of Education will go through five rounds of intensive interviews with the candidates, and the board is expected to choose just two finalists before the week is out.