Star Tribune
Anoka-Hennepin school board hires Osseo’s Cory McIntyre as its new permanent superintendent
The Anoka-Hennepin School District will soon have a new permanent superintendent. The school board on Wednesday selected Osseo Superintendent Cory McIntyre from a pool of five candidates it interviewed over the last two weeks.
Board Chair Marci Anderson offered McIntyre the job after the board voted 5 to 1 to hire him. He’ll now begin negotiating a contract with the district.
McIntyre will be the 10th person to hold the job, according to district records. He succeeds interim Superintendent Katherine Maguire, who took over for David Law after he was hired away by Minnetonka Public Schools earlier this year.
McIntyre told the board that his experience with the district gives him an advantage.
“It does give me a running start, especially coupling that with my experience in a large district with a lot of similarities,” he said.
That argument struck a chord with board members, all of whom expressed confidence in McIntyre’s bid for the job given he currently leads the state’s fifth-largest district.
“We have needs that have to be addressed and there’s a little bit of urgency to that post-pandemic and the shorter the learning curve, that’s what I’m certainly in favor for,” Anderson said.
McIntyre embarked on a full day’s worth of vetting Wednesday that included meetings with district staffers, students and residents of the two counties the district serves. Sartell-St. Stephen Superintendent Jeff Ridlehoover, the board’s other finalist, went through an identical process Tuesday.
During a town hall-style community meeting before their school board interviews, McIntyre fielded questions on topics ranging from parental rights to his experience working in large districts.
The Osseo district, which McIntyre oversees, enrolls nearly 21,000 students. Anoka-Hennepin has about 37,000.
Community members asked McIntyre if schools have a right to hide a student’s gender identity from their family. Board Member Matt Audette followed up on that line of questioning during the interview, asking McIntyre how he felt about serving transgender children and schools “teaching that stuff.”
“However a child identifies is their choice and their family’s choice. When they come to us, we have to make sure we are providing supports and ensuring their success,” McIntyre said, adding that LGBTQ and transgender youth face higher rates of harassment and self-harm than other students.
Board members also asked McIntyre about approaches he would take to address long-standing academic disparities and how he’d boost literacy among young learners.
McIntyre said it was essential for district officials to understand the unique needs each school and student may have in order to address them accordingly.
“You look at what each school needs and you try to be consistent,” McIntyre said. “And you try to meet the specific needs of a particular school at a particular time.”
In order to boost literacy among young learners, McIntyre said Osseo educators are looking into adopting a training program for educators who teach reading and spelling that’s gained widespread favor among several metro-area districts and that all Anoka-Hennepin elementary schools are in the process of implementing.
He added that elementary educators in his district have noticed kindergartners and first-graders have struggled in recent years due to a lack of socialization and early learning opportunities.
“I think we struggled a bit coming out of the pandemic,” McIntyre said. “A lot of our younger students didn’t have that early childhood [education] experience.”
McIntyre previously worked for Anoka-Hennepin as the district’s executive director of student services from August 2016 until July 2018, when he was promoted to become an assistant superintendent. He took the job as Osseo superintendent in July 2019.
DULUTH – The Minnesota and Wisconsin transportation departments will make upgrades to the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge in the summer of 2025, in preparation for the structure to become the premiere route between this city and Superior during reconstruction of the Blatnik Bridge.
Built in 1961, the Blatnik Bridge carries 33,000 vehicles per day along Interstate 535 and Hwy. 53. It will be entirely rebuilt, starting in 2027, with the help of $1 billion in federal funding announced earlier this year. MnDOT and WisDOT are splitting the remaining costs of the project, about $4 million each.
According to MnDOT, projects on the Bong Bridge will include spot painting, concrete surface repairs to the bridge abutments, concrete sealer on the deck, replacing rubber strip seal membranes on the main span’s joints and replacing light poles on the bridge and its points of entry. It’s expected to take two months, transportation officials said during a recent meeting at the Superior Public Library.
During this time there will be occasional lane closures, detours at the off-ramps, and for about three weeks the sidewalk path alongside the bridge will be closed.
The Bong Bridge, which crosses the St. Louis River, opened to traffic in 1985 and is the lesser-used of the two bridges. Officials said they want to keep maintenance to a minimum on the span during the Blatnik project, which is expected to take four years.
Red Wing will celebrate the grand opening of its first permanent set of pickleball courts next week with an “inaugural play” on the six courts at Colvill Park on the banks of the Mississippi, between a couple of marinas and next to the aquatic center.
Among the first to get to play on the new courts will be David Anderson, who brought pickleball to the local YMCA in 2008, before the nationwide pickleball craze took hold, and Denny Yecke, at 92 the oldest pickleball player in Red Wing.
The inaugural play begins at 11 a.m. Tuesday, with a rain date of the next day. Afterward will be food and celebration at the Colvill Park Courtyard building.
Tim Sletten, the city’s former police chief, discovered America’s fastest-growing sport a decade ago after he retired. With fellow members of the Red Wing Pickleball Group, he’d play indoors at the local YMCA or outdoors at a local school, on courts made for other sports. But they didn’t have a permanent place, so they approached the city about building one.
When a city feasibility study came up with a high cost, about $350,000, Sletten’s group got together to raise money.
The courts are even opening ahead of schedule, originally set for 2025.
REDWOOD FALLS, MINN. – A truck crashing into a school bus left nine with minor injuries Wednesday morning in rural Redwood County, a statement from the Redwood County Sheriff’s office said.
The bus driver, serving the Wabasso Public School District, failed to yield when entering the intersection of County Road 7 and 280th Street, the statement said.
Deputies received word of the crash around 8:15 a.m. and identified the bus driver as Edward Aslesen, 72, of Milroy.
The nine injured passengers on the bus were transported to local hospitals, the statement said.
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