The Sartell-St. Stephen school district has spent the last year searching for their next superintendent, and they have finally found their guy. Dr. Michael Rivard was the candidate chosen, and he has a résumé full of experience.

Currently, Dr. Rivard serves as the St. Cloud district’s assistant superintendent.  I had the chance to sit down and talk with Dr. Rivard about some of his future plans as superintendent, and I was able to learn a little bit more about Michael Rivard, the person.

The first thing I learned when I visited Mike was that he is one of the most humble and genuine people I have ever met. He greeted me with a huge smile (something that I learned quite quickly he does any time he walks into a room) and shook my hand and brought me up to his office. Before we even started the interview, we sat and chatted about some of our personal experiences and plans. He asked me what grade I was in and when I told him he asked me about my plans after high school. I told him I was planning to join the Marines and from there we were immediately able to connect over his past military experience in the Army and my future in the Marines. After talking for about twenty minutes about that, I was able to ask him my first question.

I was curious about some of his past experiences and how he became interested in school administration. He told me he enlisted in the military right after high school and spent six years in the Army reserves. While in the reserves, he was attending school and that was when he really found that he was interested in the education field. He started out as a clinical social worker and did that for just over a decade. As a social worker, he worked with kids on both social and emotional levels. His next job would be as a special education teacher for a year, and after that he would become principal at Oak Hill Community School for a decade. His next venture would be what he is doing now as the assistant superintendent of the St. Cloud school district.

Rivard is also no stranger to our community. He has lived in the area for over twenty years, and his kids have come up through the Sartell-St.Stephen school district. Mike said that he has had a wonderful experience living in Sartell. During his school board interview, one of the questions that he was asked was if he could paint a picture for the board about his time in Sartell. He talked about going back all the way to when he first stood at the bus stop with his kids for the first time, and his experiences with his wonderful neighbors. Mike has been involved in plenty of extracurricular activities whether it be participating in community education or being part of athletics and other activities.

Rivard explains that the opportunity of watching kids get excited about participation and all the things that our schools have to offer is a passion for him. He finds an excitement in reaching out to the community, being a leader in the community, and being a part of families seeing what their kids can do.

One of the things that Rivard wants to continue when he comes here is the high graduation rates and keeping kids excited about the community.

He plans to be an attentive listener and believes that one of the most important things about being a superintendent is listening during the first year. The importance of being available and accessible to the board and community is something is a trait that he thinks he will be able to bring to Sartell.

Rivard ended our interview with a question for me.  He asked what excited me most about my experience as someone who is graduating.  He wanted to know what I looked back on as very positive in the Sartell-St. Stephen schools. I told him that the most positive things in my experiences were with my friends, my experiences with the wonderful teachers and the many opportunities that our schools give us.

On top of interviewing Dr. Rivard I was able to interview his daughter Hannah. I asked her what her thoughts are about her dad becoming the next Sartell-St. Stephen school district superintendent.