Northfield School Board considers adding former member Hardy to serve temporarily

Dr. Rob Hardy, former Northfield School Board member and former Northfield Poet Laureate, will be asked to return to the board to serve as a temporary replacement for ailing board member Noel Stratmoen.

Stratmoen, who has served on the board since 1980, submitted a letter outlining his illness to the board on June 19. He is the longest serving board member in Minnesota.

In a recent e-letter to district families, Superintendent Matt Hillmann reported that board chair Claudia Gonzalez-George spoke with former board members and will recommend that Rob Hardy be appointed to serve as the temporary replacement until Noel Stratmoen can return to his seat or until the end of his term.

Other former members who were considered include: Ellen Iverson, Julie Pritchard, Tom Baraniak and Robert Coleman.

At the July 8 regular meeting, the board accepted Noel’s temporary resignation and discussed the process for appointing a temporary replacement. At that meeting, the majority of the Northfield School Board voted to approve reaching out to former board members to fill a temporary vacancy created due to the illness of longtime member Noel Stratmoen.

Since Stratmoen’s term ends at the end of the year, the board voted to direct the chair to seek a former board member to serve during Noel’s absence. If a former board member with service as of 2020 or later was not interested, applications from eligible district residents would have been considered.

Dr. Hardy was elected to the board twice and held office from 2013 to 2021. He served as the board’s treasurer and on numerous committees. Dr. Hardy earned a B.A. degree from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. at Brown University. He has taught at Carleton College, been an active community member, was the Northfield Arts and Culture Commission’s first poet laureate, and advised the Northfield Skateboard Coalition. Dr. Hardy currently serves as the Rice County representative on the Southeast Minnesota Arts Council.

The board will vote on Hardy’s appointment at its Aug. 12 regular meeting. If approved, he will immediately join.

At the July 8 meeting, board members Jenny Nelson and Jeff Quinnell voted against the measure to contact formerly elected School Board members, citing the need to open up the selection process more broadly to the voting public.

A lively discussion of the two options ensued after Quinnell asked what would happen if Stratmoen resigned instead. Hillmann said the board would then have to wait 30 days to officially fill the seat.

Quinnell then asked if the board could remain a six-person board. Hillmann said he had spoken with Greg Abbott, the director of communications and marketing with Minnesota School Boards Association, about the situation. Abbott told him that, by state law, the seat has to be filled.

School Board members Amy Goerwitz, Corey Butler and Ben Miller agreed that a former board member who would serve during nine regular School Board meetings would need less of a learning curve to get up to speed on board rules and regulations.

Goerwitz suggested adding a stipulation that the person selected would not run for a permanent School Board seat in the November election.

Nelson said that her research showed that the two options had similar timelines, and that she would lean toward the second option of opening the application up to eligible residents between July 10 and Aug. 5. She said she liked the transparency and openness of that option.

School board member Ben Miller said he favored the first option of asking an experienced former member since all of the candidates had been elected by district voters except for Collman who was appointed by the board to fill a temporary vacancy created last year when Stratmoen stepped aside due to health concerns.

“Option two is less efficient,” he said.

Chair Gonzalez-George said she was leaning toward the first option of selecting from the pool of former members, because of the shorter learning curve, the limited time of service and the fact that they were almost all formerly elected by the voters.

District Superintendent Matt Hillmann said that he regretted that the board was asked to take this action to fill the vacancy left by Stratmoen.

“I hope he recovers,” said Hillmann. “Noel’s a treasure in our community. He’s steadfast.”

The board will hold a special closed meeting on Monday, July 22 at 5 p.m. in the district office boardroom for the purpose of negotiations. The next regularly scheduled school board meetings are Aug. 12 and 26, both at 6 p.m. in the district office, 201 Orchard St. S.