News Photo by Jordan Spence Rogers City Area Middle/High School Principal Nicholas Hein has been hired as the superintendent for the schools, Tuesday at a special Rogers City Area School Board meeting.

ROGERS CITY — The search for a new Rogers City Area Superintendent is over.

Middle School/High School Principal, Nicholas Hein, was hired during a special Rogers City Area School Board meeting, Tuesday.

Before he was hired Hein was interviewed by board members. Former board member John Krajenta spoke during public comment. He stressed the importance of the decision the board was about to make.

“I want you to make sure the goals you’ll be setting with him are things you can actually follow through and find out whether they have been completed. We ran into situations in the past year where we were asking each other questions, whether the person was required to do certain things or not,” Krajenta said.

He added the mentorship between Hein and Interim Superintendent Jeffrey Liedel will be key as they move forward. Communication between Hein, Board President Ivy Cook and the community will also be important as well he said. Educational leadership is the most imperative component to the job Krajenta said.

After public comment the board began their interview with Hein.

Board Secretary Larry Budnick asked Hein what his educational experience was.

“In terms of my educational experience I have an Associate’s degree in liberal arts from Alpena Community College,” he said.

From there he went to Central Michigan University where he majored in industrial arts and social studies with a minor in history.

“After that I was a teacher in St. Ignace for nine years where I taught, because of my three degrees I have a minor in history as well. I was qualified and fortunate, and I do mean fortunate, to teach a wide variety of classes when I was teaching. I taught everything from auto shop and metal shop to U.S. history and world history. You name it. After that when I was working in St. Ignace I always wanted to go further into the education world, I went on to the principalship I used to drive downstate (to CMU for an administration degree),” he said.

He added he thinks the long term goals of the district needs consistency at the superintendent position.

“As the new superintendent please describe your actions, plans, goals for the first 100 days academically, financially, community etc., and how you would gauge your success at the end of that period,” asked Board Treasurer Cory Budnick.

He said the most important need is to set up a chain of command at the central office. The use of credit cards and the way things are purchased will be changed and put into writing to alleviate confusion.

“Ultimately one thing is I don’t have a problem owning it. At the end of the day if it’s their job, his job, her job, it will be my job. I own it. At the end of the day whatever happens in there or doesn’t happen in there, it’s my responsibility. In 100 days from now I would hope to have a system in place. I would hope to have two people working in the office with clear definitions of what their jobs are in central office,” Hein said.

Academically he said his goals are to add more electives at the high school and align the fifth and sixth grades together.

Throughout the interview Hein said he hopes to maintain the positive relationships with the community, staff and students. He said as the superintendent he knows the lines of communication between the board and him are key to district health.

“In terms of the relationship between the school board and the superintendent if people aren’t communicating with one another I think you’re going to have problems. When I say that we’re going to have a vote on an issue, for example, I would hope, and this isn’t going to always be the case but, if we were going to have a vote on whatever it may be we should have a seven-nothing vote. I should be doing a good enough job if I believe in what we’re doing that you should all say ‘Yah, I believe in that too,'” Hein said.

Personal communication is also central to how he plans to interact with school staff.

After the interview Liedel made a motion to hire Hein as the Middle School/High School Principal and Superintendent.

“We’ve been given a gift and we better take it,” said Trustee Don Kromer.

Jordan Spence can be reached via email at jspence@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5687.