St. Paul school board says Kelly will remain interim head

No end in sight to the tiff between the district and a state agency over interim superintendent.

By GREGORY A. PATTERSON, Star Tribune

Last update: August 20, 2009 - 11:03 PM

The stare down between the state's board of school administrators and the St. Paul School District over licensing its interim superintendent went a step further Thursday when the board refused to reconsider its decision to deny Suzanne Kelly a license.

It isn't clear what will happen next.

Several members of the school administrators' board said the matter is out of their hands, while other education officials said legal action is the next step. The school district said Kelly will continue as interim for the short-term, until they have a full-time, licensed superintendent on board.

The Minnesota Department of Education, which oversees both the administrators' board and the St. Paul district, said it lacks the legal authority to do anything in the dispute. "We really have no role in this situation," said Chas Anderson, deputy education commissioner.

It's up to the school administrators' board to take legal action against the St. Paul schools, Anderson said. "If they wanted to take the next step, they would have to initiate legal action."

Kazoua Kong-Thao, chair of the St. Paul Board of Education, insisted during the administrators' board meeting and afterward that Kelly is the best person for the job and that the district intends to continue with her as interim superintendent. The district plans to have a new superintendent by the end of November, Kong-Thao said.

The school district has been without a superintendent since the end of June, when former Superintendent Meria Carstarphen departed to become school's chief in Austin, Texas. With Kelly at the helm, "this has been one of the smoothest interim periods," said Kong-Thao. "She's been a thoughtful and wise leader."

But the board of administrators, insisting that Kelly has neither the education nor experience to be approved as an interim, pointed out that the district has 23 people who currently hold superintendent licenses, implying they could have appointed one of them to the post.

"We've worked for years to professionalize teaching, and if it is going to be a profession, then we need to have a fully licensed professional to lead teaching," said Louise Sundin, a member of the administrator's board. "She [Kelly] has no professional qualifications or credentials at all in education."

School district attorney Jeff Lalla said the people who have superintendent licenses and the experience to be interim are expected to be applicants for the full-time job. Giving the interim post to one of them might give the impression to other candidates that the interim has a leg up. That could keep the most promising candidates from applying. It is because Kelly doesn't have a license, doesn't intend to pursue one and doesn't want to become a full-time superintendent that she is a good interim, Lalla said.

Kelly has been chief of staff for two years, and was chief of staff in the Memphis school district before that. She entered the education field 11 years ago as communications director for the Minneapolis schools. Before that, she was a reporter and editor at the Star Tribune.

Gregory A. Patterson • 612-673-7287