BOLD School Board reverses course, taps high school principal as new superintendent
Board members rescinded a decision to start the superintendent selection process over again and called on BOLD High School Principal Jim Menton to lead the district as its new superintendent. 5:00 pm, May 25, 2021 ×
BOLD High School Principal Jim Menton
OLIVIA With a crowd of nearly 100 filling the high school media center in Olivia, BOLD School Board members selected High School Principal Jim Menton as the district’s new superintendent.
His selection at Monday night’s meeting came on a 4-2 vote, and only four days after board members had voted to start the selection process anew for a superintendent to lead the district that serves the communities of Bird Island, Lake Lillian and Olivia.
dgau@marshallindependent.com
Photo by Mike Lamb
Movers wheeled boxes of city records and other documents into the newly-renovated Marshall City Hall on Tuesday. The records had been in storage since city offices moved into temporary space at the campus of SMSU.
=MARSHALL Â Another sign that construction at Marshall’s renovated City Hall is getting close to done could be seen Tuesday.
Moving trucks were parked on Main Street outside City Hall, as crew members wheeled stacks of file boxes into the building. The boxes, containing city records and files, were headed for updated storage rooms on the building’s lower level.
dgau@marshallindependent.com
Photo by Deb Gau
Marshall Mayor Bob Byrnes walked up the main stairs at the renovated City Hall during a Monday morning tour. While some finishing touches have to be put on the building, the work was complete enough for the city to do a construction walkthrough on Monday morning
MARSHALL Â Renovations at Marshall’s City Hall are close to complete, and Marshall Mayor Bob Byrnes said the project is still on time and on budget.
City staff went on a final walkthrough of the renovated City Hall on Monday, and the plan is to begin moving some furniture into the building later this week, said City Administrator Sharon Hanson.
jprzytarski@marshallindependent.com
Photo by Jake Przytarski
Southwest Minnesota State University graduate Kari Hedman walks across the stage during Saturdayâs commencement ceremony at the R/A Facility
MARSHALL A year removed from Southwest Minnesota State University’s difficult and unprecedented decision to cancel its 2020 commencement ceremony due to COVID, the proud tradition lived on this past Saturday for the 2021 graduating class–albeit with some format tweaks to accommodate virus protocols.
One by one 235 students walked up to the stage at the R/A Facility and received their diplomas from SMSU President Kumara Jayasuriya in front of a virtual audience of family members and friends with the event closed to in-person spectators.
dgau@marshallindependent.com
MARSHALL Â For more than a year, students at Southwest Minnesota State University have had to adapt to quickly-changing conditions, President Kumara Jayasuriya said. From suddenly switching to distance learning last spring, to all the changes and disruptions that the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it over the past academic year, seniors that graduated Saturday had been through a lot and succeeded.
“You are one of the most resilient graduating classes of SMSU. Not even a global pandemic could stop you,” Jayasuriya said this week in a recorded address for the class of 2021.
Over the course of the past week, speakers like Jayasuriya and members of SMSU’s charter graduating class of 1971 all congratulated new grads on being able to adapt to challenging times. For COVID-19 safety reasons, this year’s commencement speakers all recorded video messages that were shared with students each day of graduation week.