Forest Lake school board names three finalists to fill Luke Hagglund vacancy

Following an eight-hour meeting of the Forest Lake Area Schools board last week that failed to fill a vacancy or accomplish other pressing board business the board met again Wednesday and narrowed the candidate list down to three What transpired last Thursday until two in the morning was extremely formidable board member Jill Christenson commented during Wednesday evening s meeting That meeting was incredibly challenging unnecessary and a lot of trust has been broken During the Dec meeting the board was unable to agree on one candidate to fill the vacancy and other agenda items had to wait as the consequence of language used in the Nov resolution defining the vacancy-filling process That resolution was adopted as a special order of business and Board Chairman Curt Rebelein argued that no other business could be conducted until the special order was resolved During Wednesday s meeting the board voted unanimously to rescind the Nov resolution Instead candidates who received at least four votes would move forward in the process The three candidates moving forward are Andi Courneya Princesa Hansen and Paul Pease Candidates Scot Doboszenski Laura Ndirangu and Jim Smith were eliminated from consideration before the voting took place since they failed to secure majority backing last week Rebelein disclosed during the meeting Candidates Kenneth Rutford and Daniel Tuott were removed from consideration after receiving fewer than four yes votes on Wednesday I just want to say thank you to all the applicants in this process and for your patience because I know this has allegedly been a long week of not really knowing what s happening board member Tessa Antonsen noted during the meeting So we apologize for that unknown and appreciate so much constituents involvement and interest in this whole process Along with thanking members of the citizens for their participation in the ballot process multiple members of the board also apologized to those who witnessed the tension during the Dec meeting We do not want that to happen again board member Gail Theisen noted during the meeting That was stressful that was exhausting and it was so void of why we re here We re here for our students and our district and we re very passionate about that so let s just continue down that road of positivity and trying to build relationships with each other Rebelein also spoke to his role as chairman in the events that occurred in the previous meeting Related Articles Here s what s driving Ramsey County s proposed levy hike New Metro Transit course connects Woodbury area with MSP Airport and MOA Snowstorm expected to swoop into Twin Cities metro Tuesday afternoon East metro watershed districts giving away chicken grit as sidewalk salt alternative New Oakdale group home will advocacy youth impacted by sexual exploitation human trafficking I ll be the first to say it s much easier to preside over a meeting where there s agreement rather than disagreement and gridlock Rebelein mentioned during the meeting That gets intricate especially when you re in a position where you need to enforce the rules and the resolutions and stuff that have been put forward That put me in a tough position as well because I required to see it get done last week but at the same time I had to meet the directive of the board s will as a majority Now that the majority s changed that will and we ve resolved that resolution that will make that much easier moving forward Rebelein suggested that now that the candidates have been narrowed down to three the board and general can take time to reflect on the finalists Rebelein revealed next approaches would be defined by Friday to be presented at the next board meeting on Dec