RHINELANDER - The School District of Rhinelander will have new leadership next year.

But the list of potential candidates is long, which means they're starting from square one.

Community engagement, financial responsibility and student achievement.

Those are some of the main values the School District of Rhinelander is looking for in a new superintendent.



Tonight’s meeting started the hiring process for the new superintendent.

The current superintendent, Roger Erdahl, retires June 30th

Fifteen candidates have applied for his position so far.

Tonight’s goal was defining what qualities in a candidate best reflect the school district.

“I think it’s a good process that we’re embarked on, I don’t think it will take an over extenuating amount of time and I think in the end we’ll have the best possible candidate for the Rhinelander School District,” said School Board President Ron Counter.

The district brought in a consulting firm to assist in the search process.

That cost 9 thousand dollards.

School Board President Ron Counter says that cost has no effect on the $3 million per year referendum the district is asking for.

"We’ve been planning the superintendent search for a while in fact prior to going into referendum so the money was already outlaid and it won’t have a direct effect on next year’s budget, it will be taken out of this year’s budget," said Counter.

The school board begins the interviewing process in February.

The public is invited to those interviews to observe.

The board will choose a candidate by March with the new superintendent starting July 1st.

Story By: Hayley Tenpas