Less than two months before Principal Meyers’ resignation is set to go into effect, Superintendent Astein Osei decided not to hire any of the candidates that were previously considered. In 6425 News May 1, Osei announced he would begin the search for an interim principal for the 2020-2021 school year. 

“I’m just a firm believer in you don’t rush to make decisions as important as this one. Sometimes it’s OK to be a little more thoughtful and methodical in your process to really make sure that you make a decision that will fall in and then is able to meet the needs that you that you have in your school community,” Osei said.

According to junior Anna Jensen, who participated in the first round of interviews, the decision seemed logical to her because there was not a clear frontrunner after the first round of interviews. 

“Honestly I wasn’t that surprised because it seemed like when we were debriefing with all the different stakeholder groups at the interview, when they were going through every group’s top choice and then least favorite, it was kind of all over the place. It didn’t really seem like there was any consensus or agreement on one or two people that satisfies what everyone is looking for in a principal,” Jensen said. 

Osei said the search for the interim principal will be mainly based on stakeholder feedback from before the interview process started, as well as feedback from the previous interviews. 

“Before we started the interview process we sent out a survey saying ‘Hey please tell us the qualifications, attributes and so on and so forth that you want in your next principal’ so I’m going to take all of that, go back through it right to really get centered around what our community is asking for,” Osei said. “So what I’m doing is kind of pulling through themes and looking for what were these main driving forces or factors that people really wanted.” 

According to Jensen, the transition to an interim principal may make the 2020-2021 school year more unusual for students. 

“People might be a little unhappy by having another factor that contributes to the confusion and everything with the school year and next school year, and not really getting back into it with a strong principal, and then going back just kind of having another loosey-goosey year might affect some people,” Jensen said.

Osei said he hopes the interim principal can bring in ideas that can continue to be applied when St. Louis Park Public Schools hires a permanent principal. 

“I’m looking forward to somebody that will be able to come in and be a great team member for the staff at the high school and help to bring in maybe a fresh pair of eyes on how things are going and maybe offer some solutions or suggestions to help us continue to be the great school that we are,” Osei said. 

According to Osei, his search for an interim principal was interrupted by his attempts to stay responsive to parents and students after the decision to move to pass-no credit grading was released, but he hopes by the end of the week of May 11 to have more information on the interim principal for the 2020-2021 school year.