They’ve been vetted very seriously.”

Director of Leadership Development and Executive Search at MSBA Barb Dorn

At the Tuesday, April 29 special school board work session, the ISD 200 board announced the five finalists for the district’s superintendent position. They are: Dr. Daniel Edwards, Executive Director of Academic Services at Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools; Dr. Jeffrey Fleig, Superintendent of Fond du Lac School District in Wisconsin; Dr. Kristine Wehrkamp Herman, Superintendent of Royalton Public Schools; Theodore Ihns, Superintendent of Kasson-Mantorville Schools; and Dr. Michael Neubeck, Superintendent of Byron Public Schools.

These candidates were recommended by the Minnesota School Board Association (MSBA) for the position in Hastings through a review process by former superintendents using a five-point scale including a social media sweep and background check: “They’ve been vetted very seriously,” said Director of Leadership Development and Executive Search at MSBA Barb Dorn.

According to Dorn, there is generally agreement during this process on which candidates stand out, which led to the seven candidates put forward to the board by MSBA: “There does tend to be consensus on top.”

Of the seven MSB-recommended candidates, the board decided to move forward to interview five finalists. The district received applications from 25 candidates, nearly double the number of applications received by the district from just two years ago and “the most we’ve seen all year,” said Dorn. Dorn underscored the significance of such a large pool which allowed MSBA to be more particular about which candidates they recommended, calling the pool “a phenomenal number.”

The finalists

Dr. Daniel Edwards has been with Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools for the last 19 years, starting as a middle school principal in 2006 and shifting into the role of Director of Teaching and Learning in 2021 and Executive Director of Academic Services in 2023.

Edwards was finalist in several regional superintendent races including in Saint Peter and Kasson-Mantorville.

Dr. Jeffrey Fleig has been the Superintendent at Fond du Lac since 2023 and before that was a principal at several high schools and middle schools including at the South Milwaukee School District, Glendale-River Hills School District and La Crosse School District.

In January of this year, Dr. Fleig announced his retirement from Fond Du Lac siting prioritizing his family and son’s swimming career: “Over the next three years, I want to focus on supporting him as he competes at the NCAA Division I level and prepares for the 2028 Olympic Trials,” according to his resignation letter.

The resignation came only one month after community backlash, including asking for Fleig to be put on administrative leave and for a third-party investigation, due to comments Fleig made to teachers regarding failed goals on the school’s report card.

Dr. Kristine Wehrkamp Herman has been with the Royalton Public School District since 2021 and before that served as the Executive Director of Community Education at Robbinsdale Area Schools since 2016.

Dr. Wehrkamp Herman was a finalist for the superintendent role at Brainard in 2024.

Dr. Theodore Ihns has been the Superintendent at Kasson-Mantorville since 2024. He announced his resignation in January of 2025 “to seek new opportunities,” according to reporting from KTTC news.

Just a year prior in 2023, Ihns resigned from Indianola School District after arriving in the summer of 2022. While Ihns did not provide a reason for his “retirement” from the district in his resignation letter, he would later tell the Indianola School Board in December 2023 his leave was due to his wife accepting a position out of state: “She’s followed me for 30 years. It’s time for me to follow her,” said Ihns. He was hired at Kasson-Mantorville in February 2024 and began in June of that year.

Ihns is currently a finalist for the superintendent role at Pine Island.

Dr. Michael Neubeck has been with the Byron School District since 2021. Due to a budget error that went unnoticed for months in 2024, the school board approved $1.5 million in last minute budget cuts in September followed by taking out $3.5 million in loans in December to cover costs.

Neubeck announced his resignation from the district in December 2024—just weeks after community backlash including a petition calling for his resignation—for the district failing a referendum and mishandling funds.

The interview process

The board also finalized questions for both the superintendent interviews based around the leadership profile for the district. The interview questions are not public so as to not allow candidates to see them beforehand.

Dorn also walked board members through interview training including bias, dealing with public comment, and the deliberation process.

The MSBA has added a section on bias to their interview training to address common occurrences of bias during the interview process. Dorn told several true stories of boards of age bias where boards preferred younger candidates due to their assumption younger candidates would be more tech savvy, and gender bias where boards would use the same description for two candidates where it was a positive for the male candidate and negative for the female candidate.

Another form of bias Dorn mentioned was geographic bias which in Minnesota often takes the form of preference of metro superintendents versus those in outstate Minnesota.

“I just want you to know it happens,” said Dorn about bias so that board members could be aware of it and attempt to curb it.

Dorn also prepped the board for the wave of public comment on the district’s finalists. “You’ll start getting lobbied,” from community members both in-person and online, said Dorn.

Board members were instructed to not engage with people to defend their decision, and to be aware that the interview process for superintendents is a two-way street: “They’re interviewing you as much as you are interviewing them,” said Dorn.

During deliberation, board members were instructed to focus on the positives of candidates rather than the negatives and to do their best to move forward on a unanimous basis. While the board only needs a majority vote to approve the hiring of a superintendent, non-unanimous votes can be seen as a red flag for incoming superintendents who have been known to refuse offers if they aren’t unanimous, said Dorn.

The first round of interviews took place on Tuesday, May 6 with the second round of interviews scheduled for May 13.