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USC narrows the choice from 4 to 2

Finalists Routh and Topinka will be interviewed again this week

By Kevin Mertens - Staff Writer | Jan 15, 2023

Robert Routh, left, and Taylor Topinka, right, are the two finalists to be the new superintendent at United South Central Schools.

And then there were two.

The United South Central School Board has narrowed the field of candidates they are considering for the job of USC superintendent from four down to two.

Robert Routh and Taylor Topinka were chosen as the two finalists following an afternoon when all four preliminary candidates were individually interviewed by both the School Board and a community committee. Those interviews took place on Tuesday, Jan. 10.

Routh is currently a member of the USC staff where he teaches 11th and 12th grade English.

Topinka is the principal for grades 7-12 at Granada-Huntley-East Chain and is a secondary social studies teacher.

The board will conduct a final interview with each candidate. One will be interviewed on Wednesday, Jan. 18, and the other will be interviewed on Thursday, Jan. 19. Each interview will be from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in the Community Education room at the school. The interviews are open to the public.

“All four candidates you are going to interview today have fine attributes,” South Central Service Cooperative (SCSC) search consultant Harold Remme told the board before last Tuesday’s interviews began. “It is up to you to find the person who is the best fit for your district.”

In addition to Routh and Topinka, the other candidates who were interviewed were Michelle Mortensen and Heidi Venem.

Mortensen is currently a superintendent at Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart while Venem is the director of Special Education and Student Services at Mason City Schools.

Board members asked the candidates a variety of questions. Some questions dealt with their people skills and how they resolve conflicts and deal with difficult issues.

Other questions inquired about their experience with school financial issues.

They were asked to tell about what they considered to be their strengths and weaknesses and what role they would take in the community.

After the two groups, the board and the community committee, had completed their interviews, Remme and Ed Waltman, another SCSC representative, tabulated the results of the interviews conducted by the community committee.

The School Board then convened a meeting to consider their options.

“Prior to COVID, if this position would have been open you would have had 15-20 candidates apply for the job,” Waltman said. “COVID has changed everything. We still had four excellent candidates to interview and I feel all of them will most likely become a superintendent at some time.”

The board reviewed the committee’s results which named Routh and Topinka as their top two candidates.

Some members of the board broached the idea of bringing three candidates back as finalists and adding Mortensen to the list.

However, after some discussion, it was decided to just name Routh and Topinka as the finalists.

Routh graduated from Minnesota State University – Mankato. He and his wife were married in 2000 and moved to Colorado for 13 years where he taught middle school English to kids of Hispanic ethnicity.

Later, he taught grades pre-K-6 in Denver Public Schools before becoming the Dean of Students and the activities director for grades 9-12.

He and his wife moved back to Minnesota and Routh sold insurance for a short time. He has been at USC since 2015.

Topinka is a graduate of St. Cloud State University and said he became interested in education because his mother was a teacher and undecided wasn’t listed as a choice.

He did his student teaching at New London-Spicer before being hired to teach high school social studies at Russell-Tyler-Ruthton.

Topinka has been at GHEC for three years and his wife is also on staff at the school as a third grade teacher. He began as the pre-K-12 principal at GHEC and transitioned to the middle school and high school principal.

Following the final interview on Jan. 19, the School Board will hold a special meeting to discuss the finalist candidates. At that time, the board may take action to enter into contract negotiations with one of the candidates to become USC’s next superintendent.

The new superintendent’s first day on the job will be July 1.

Current superintendent Keith Fleming is retiring at the end of the current school year.