B-T promotes Halverson to superintendent

Blair-Taylor’s search for a new superintendent featured two finalists who were ultimately passed over and another candidate that turned the position down. Somehow, the district still ended up with, perhaps, the board’s top choice for the job as elementary school principal Lynn Halverson was hired.

When the school board learned last spring that Jeff Eide would be vacating his post as the district superintendent, board president Troy Tenneson said they reached out to see if Halverson had interest. But, he didn’t. 

“At that time, I felt I could benefit from learning from and experiencing the leadership style of another superintendent before taking on such an important role,” Halverson told the Times.

That began a search that was originally supposed to end on April 25. The board had announced two finalists — former Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School Principal Troy White and Sarah Tobiason of the Decorah Community School District in Decorah, Iowa. After final interviews were conducted on April 18, Tenneson said the board didn’t think either was a good fit for the position.

The board reopened the application process and began doing interviews again. This time, it had decided to offer the job to Durand District Administrator Greg Doverspike, but he ultimately declined the offer. 

While not interested in the job himself at that time, Halverson was participating in the interviews. As the district hit a standstill, the elementary school principal decided to throw his hat in the ring.  

“I did some extensive reflection, communicated with my family, and chose to express my interest in the superintendent position to the school board,” Halverson said. “From there, I interviewed with the school board and I was fortunate to have this position offered to me.”

The B-T board president said he thinks having Halverson help conduct the interviews gave the school’s new leader more confidence that he could do the job.

“When we got wind of Lynn applying, we set up an interview meeting with him,” Tenneson said. “We had a good conversation, everything went smooth.” 

While the search took longer than anticipated, Tenneson said the board was happy with how it ended. 

“I am very pleased,” Tenneson said. “I think it’s a very good fit and I think we’ll keep moving forward in the right direction.” 

Tenneson cited Halverson’s familiarity with the district as a plus, the new superintendent has been the district’s elementary school principal since 2015 after previously serving as the Trempealeau Elementary School principal and teaching in Prescott, Black River Falls and G-E-T. 

“He’s very knowledgeable,” Tenneson said. “He has been at our school for a while, he knows how our district operates and moves forward, he’s very good with people.”

Tenneson said it was the first time the board members had conducted a superintendent search, noting that when Eide was hired it was an internal promotion. This time “it was a whole new can of worms.”