News Photo by Crystal Nelson Craig McCane, principal of Linden Grove Middle School in Kalamazoo, is interviewed on Monday by the Alpena Public Schools Board of Education via videoconferencing software.

ALPENA — The Alpena Public Schools Board of Education on Monday interviewed two of the five candidates hoping to become the district’s next superintendent.

Candidates Myra Munroe, a special education teacher at Evart Middle School in Evart, and Craig McCane, principal of Linden Grove Middle School in Kalamazoo, answered 18 questions from the school board.

The remaining three candidates — David Rabbideau, former assistant superintendent at Harper Woods Public Schools, Alpena Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Meaghan Gauthier, and Vassar Public Schools Superintendent Dorothy Blackwell — will be interviewed by the board today.

Technical difficulties on Zoom, the online videoconferencing software the board used to interview candidates, prevented the board from seeing Munroe during the interview.

Munroe currently works as a special education teacher at Evart Middle School in Evart, but previously served as superintendent of Reed City Area Public Schools.

Rich Ramsay, consultant with the Michigan Association of School Boards, said Munro had a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education, a master’s degree in education administration, and a doctorate in education administration, but he couldn’t say late Monday where those degrees were earned and couldn’t forward the applicants’ resumes to The News.

Munroe told the Alpena school board everyone’s important, but “our kids are first.

“To me, they’re most important, because that’s what guides us,” she said. “That’s what we’re there for, and we make all of the decisions based on what’s best for them.”

Munroe added that staff need to feel valued for the hard work they do for kids.

Munroe said she would like to live in the district if she were hired. She has also been involved in a couple of bond construction projects in her career.

Munroe resigned as superintendent of Reed City Area Public Schools in 2019, two years after she was hired. That school board paid her two payments totalling $125,000 as part of a separation agreement to step down as the district’s superintendent, according to the Big Rapids News.

That school board’s president told The Cadillac News in November 2019 “the board has decided to go in a different direction in leadership.”

The Cadillac News reported at the time of her resignation that 33 teachers had resigned or retired early and eight out of 11 coaches left the school district since she became superintendent in 2017.

The News could not find contact information for Munroe late Monday.

McCane previously served as the principal for Maple Street Magnet School for the Arts in Kalamazoo. Before working for Kalamazoo Public Schools, he worked as principal of Thompson Middle School in Saginaw.

He has a bachelor of arts degree in education and a masters degree in education administration, according to Ramsey.

McCane said he believes a superintendent is more effective when he or she lives in the school district.

He said having the ability to connect with people 24 hours a day is critical to moving the mission of the district forward and having a community that is proud about the school and the direction it’s going in.

“The superintendent is the figurehead and the face of the organization,” he said.

McCane also has experience with bond projects, where he was involved in a bond project when Thompson Middle School was built. He was also appointed to Linden Grove Middle School while it was being constructed and helped to decide that schools’ name.

In addition to the naming of the building, he developed some of the intricacies of the master schedules and developed the school’s traffic flow in its parking lot. He was also involved in picking out the furniture, making sure the paint was completed, and created contingency plans in case that building didn’t open in time.