by Jim Boyle
Editor
After finishing up his interim superintendency at the Elk River Area School District, Bruce Watkins will once again not be retiring.
Instead, he will be trading desks with Dan Bittman.
Watkins will begin his term as interim superintendent for the Sauk Rapids-Rice School District just as Bittman leaves there for his new job in Elk River.
The Sauk Rapids-Rice School Board voted recently to offer Watkins the temporary position.
The Sauk Rapids School Board considered six semifinalists and picked Watkins to be the interim superintendent from a pool of two finalists. The finalists met with community members, district staff, teachers and the board for final interviews. Watkins is expected to take over July 1. Watkins will remain in the new interim position for a year while the board searches for a permanent replacement.
Sauk Rapids serves approximately 40,000 residents and 4,300 children in the northwestern reaches of the St. Cloud metro area while employing nearly 600 staff members.
The Elk River Area School District’s interim superintendent almost never applied for the Elk River job in Elk River.
He hadn’t been looking and wasn’t even aware of the opening until a colleague, a former Sauk Rapids superintendent, mentioned it while the two educators were catching up over coffee. The man told Watkins he was surprised he hadn’t applied for “Elk River.”
The St. Cloud man, who has never been very good at retiring, became immediately interested due to its close proximity and strong reputation.
After leaving the coffee shop, Watkins emailed Ken Dragseth, who he learned was leading the search, to see if he was too late.
The listing for the interim superintendency was about to close. Watkins hurried up and got Dragseth and his consulting firm School Exec Connect Inc. all it needed to be considered. He was hired last July.
Watkins served as the St. Cloud superintendent of schools from 2004 through 2008 and again from 2010 through 2013. Over the past couple of years, he’s been working in the St. Paul area, serving as executive director of the Nova Classical Academy in 2014-2015 and last year working on an extensive teacher evaluation project for the St. Paul Conservatory.
Watkins started his educational career, which spans more than four decades, in Proctor, where he was a teacher and principal. He served as an assistant superintendent in the Duluth School District, as well.