Star Tribune
St. Paul superintendent’s tenure ends after ‘some tests,’ national praise
Joe Gothard settled his 6-foot-6 frame into a bean-bag chair on a recent morning at the American Indian Magnet School in St. Paul.
He was there to observe a reading intervention class — a routine that dates to the fall — and he noted the name on the chair, which was Big Joe.
That had been his nickname in his hometown of Madison, Wis., where he will return as that district’s new schools chief next month.
Gothard leaves St. Paul as the 2024 National Superintendent of the Year, yet he and others say that it’s the right time for a fresh start for all.
“Being back in Madison to me is really appealing at this stage in my life,” he said in a recent interview. “It’s not bigger than St. Paul, but that doesn’t really matter to me. The purpose is still the purpose. The challenges are still going to be there.”
Gothard is one of America’s longest-serving urban superintendents, the third longest, in fact, among 78 in the Council of the Great City Schools. Although he and his leadership team have made creative moves that have garnered national attention, challenges remain for Minnesota’s second-largest school district.
St. Paul’s enrollment has steadied a bit under his watch, thanks in part to the district’s multicultural offerings. Nonetheless, it still is sliding and now stands at 32,145 students.
The literacy work made possible by a massive infusion of federal pandemic aid shows promise and will remain in place, but the district’s annual test scores lag and the achievement gap persists.
As Gothard prepares to hand the reins to veteran interim leader John Thein, he is helping shape a 2024-25 budget with a $107 million deficit and with cuts that undermine the goal of his Envision SPPS district redesign. School closings and mergers were supposed to make a well-rounded education for all elementary students possible, yet dozens of specialist teaching positions now are on the line.
Stephanie Anderson, a parent who helped block the proposed closing of Wellstone Elementary and later chaired board member Yusef Carrillo’s campaign, said she believes Gothard “believes in public education and in the value of it. I believe he goes to work each day doing the best he can.”
But, she said, “I think the timing is really good for him to leave.”
Calm in a busy job
On Feb. 15, Gothard was in San Diego for the national conference of the American Association of School Administrators, during which the 50 state superintendents of the year are paraded out, an envelope is unsealed and the name of the National Superintendent of the Year is announced. As a finalist, he prepared a few words, just in case.
At the same time, St. Paul’s teachers were in the process of authorizing a strike — a clean sweep of such votes during his seven years at the helm — and Madison’s school board president phoned him in the morning to offer him the superintendent post.
“Thankfully, I’ve been through some tests in my tenure in St. Paul,” he said of the ability to stay calm when emotions may be running high.
A year ago, a student was fatally stabbed in a hallway at Harding High School, and the district spent months exploring what it would take to make the schools safer.
As a mentor to aspiring leaders, Gothard said he makes it a practice to be present in the moment, to listen before speaking, to ask good questions and take cues from people who come at him all day with diverse perspectives.
“In this work and the work of leadership, you can’t say ‘yes’ to everything,” he said. “In fact, I have a quote I often share with people: How good are my ‘yeses’ if I never say ‘no?'”
School closures and additions
Last spring, Gothard and his administrative team said yes when Somali parents and others advocated for a broader array of programming — eventually opening an East African Elementary Magnet School that helped ease the district’s projected enrollment decline.
They launched a Karen language program believed to be the first of its kind in the nation.
Even Envision SPPS, which Gothard acknowledges as unpopular, set the district apart from others in the country by taking on school closures in a systematic way that allowed for some innovation, he said.
But Anna Peters, a parent at Galtier Community School, which was closed to make room for an early childhood education hub, said that after a year at nearby Hamline Elementary, she and her husband decided to pull their fifth-grader and place her in a St. Paul charter school.
Teachers need support to meet all of their students’ needs, Peters said, and it isn’t clear the bigger schools that result from mergers can deliver. Not that she blames Gothard. “Running a school district is such a behemoth of a job,” she said.
What’s next in St. Paul
Gothard’s tenure in St. Paul ends on May 17, and Thein, who was interim leader before Gothard was hired in 2017, will bring the 2024-25 budget with its expansive cuts to the finish line in June.
The school board has not set a timeline for its search for a permanent superintendent.
Last week, Gothard was in Madison, visiting schools long familiar to him and his family, and in an exchange with a student who asked why he was returning, said: “How can I make school awesome every day for you? That’s why I’m back.”
But he has made clear, too, that he is National Superintendent of the Year because of St. Paul.
In Minnesota, the real “October surprise” will always be the weather.
We started the week in shorts, crunching through the last of the autumn leaves, basking in temperatures that soared into the 70s. We knew it wouldn’t last. The forecast told us it wouldn’t last. The storm clouds gathering on the horizon told us it wouldn’t last.
It didn’t last. Wednesday’s chilly rains hint at snow in the forecast for Halloween. Forget the Blizzard of ‘91 and start layering your costumes for the Potential Accumulation of ‘24.
At the National Weather Service’s Twin Cities office, meteorologists have tracked this year’s wild weather gyrations, from weirdly snowless winter to soggy spring to stormy summer to a long, warm autumn drought. Whatever the weather, Minnesota seemed to get too much of it or not enough. Now, surprisingly, central Minnesota is looking at the possibility of this year’s first and last October snowfall.
“We’ll have snow mixed in with rain early Thursday morning,” said meteorologist Jacob Beitlich. “But as you go through the morning, there’s going to be a narrow band of heavy snow that’s going to develop.”
Northeast and central Minnesota into northwest Wisconsin are most likely to see that heavy snow land on their jack-o’-lantern, Beitlich said. Unlike last Halloween’s snowstorm, the ground should be warm enough to keep the snow from turning the Thursday commute into a complete mess.
“Most folks will have a wet driveway in the morning, but there will be some of us that will see snow that will be heavy at times in the morning,” he said.
By the time any trick-or-treaters hit the streets in the evening, the snow will probably be gone, but it will be a raw, damp and blustery night. Temperatures will drop into the 30s, the winds will pick up and plenty of Minnesotans will take a page from the 1991 playbook and layer those costumes. Pirate costume too drafty? Cut some eyeholes in a blanket – boom, you’re a pirate ghost. Already planning to trick-or-treat as a ghost? Throw a parka over your sheet – now you’re the ghost of an arctic explorer.
The total number of people who were hospitalized as a result of the contaminated pizza and the extent of the injuries were not immediately clear. The health department did not immediately respond to a question seeking that information. But the department said it had “received dozens of reports” from people feeling affected and alluded to multiple people having been sent to the hospital.
“Possible THC-related symptoms include dizziness, increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, nausea, vomiting, anxiety, panic attacks, paranoia, hallucinations, short term memory impacts, time distortion, and sleepiness,” the department said. “Keep in mind each person’s reaction may be different, and the concentration of THC in the pizza can vary by piece.”
The comments on Famous Yeti’s social media posts were overwhelmingly positive. Many people expressed appreciation for the business’ openness about its mistake and expression of regret. A few customers also — possibly in jest — saw the news as even more reason to patronize the restaurant.
“When i come and I wink twice,” one commenter wrote, “I want that pizza alright lol.”
DuBois also told the court about a talk she had with Kingsbury in mid-March 2023, a few weeks before Kingsbury went missing. Kingsbury had planned to leave Fravel by then, but she told DuBois that Fravel had said “she would not be leaving with his kids,” according to DuBois.
In a meeting at a hotel near Mayo around the same time, DuBois said she noticed a reddish mark around Kingsbury’s neck. DuBois asked Kingsbury if there was anything Kingsbury needed and later provided her with some concealer so others wouldn’t notice.
“(Kingsbury) said she was figuring out a plan so that it didn’t happen again,” DuBois said.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Zach Bauer pointed out that DuBois, Scott and Kolka all became familiar with each other after Kingsbury’s disappearance, implying their conversations about the case may have led them to become biased against Fravel.
Bauer challenged Kolka on how she stored items she took from Kingsbury’s house in April 2023, when Kingsbury was still considered missing. Kolka turned over to law enforcement bedsheets that came from Kingsbury’s house after Kingsbury’s body was found in June 2023, but Bauer pointed out those items, as well as other evidence law enforcement examined at Kolka’s house, wasn’t properly secured.
“Anybody could have come through the house at that time,” he said during questions.
