Enerson Moves in as New ROCORI Superintendent

COLD SPRING (WJON News) - This fall, ROCORI School District will have a new leader.

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Kevin Enerson started as Superintendent at ROCORI on July 1st and has spent much of the last two weeks settling into a new school district.

He says the decision to make the move was easy when he started to research the great reputation of the school.

Well, I was impressed. I mean, what great opportunities for students and kids in great facilities and, overall, just a very well respected school district and known for doing a lot of really good things academically and athletically and providing those opportunities. I'm going, Wow, what a great, great opportunity here.

Enerson says once the move was announced, he spent time trying to explain that ROCORI is a combination of three towns, not a private school.

I have had people say “well, it's a private school”. I don't, my daughter went to St. Ben's, so I've been around here. I knew that ROCORI was a part of Cold Spring, Rockville, and Richmond, but I know that there are some people that think “Where is ROCORI and what community is that”.

Enerson has to move quickly; school starts in less than two months, and the Minnesota Legislature has passed a record investment into education statewide, including school lunches for all and more money for the Special Education cross-subsidy, but the details on how those programs work are still being developed.

Well, I've been following that, as a superintendent in another district. I've attended legislative wrap up sessions by the school board association and by the superintendent's association. So I've been able to follow along. I think there still are a lot of questions with some of these things. There were some changes with student discipline; our principals are very much on top of that. I think we've got everything in order there. I don't know if they have all the answers to everything yet, but I think that we're in a good place to get going.

Moving forward, Enerson says the last few weeks have been full of meetings and getting used to the new surroundings, but he intends to be an active member of the community.

Well, one of my goals is to get out and meet people in the community. The goal is to be visible and to know that I'm accessible. If you have questions or concerns, I'm here to listen and hear. As a superintendent, I'm not only here to help lead the education program, I'm also here to connect with the community.

New staff at ROCORI report for the year on August 22^nd, with the rest of the staff moving in on August 28^th. The first day of classes is scheduled for September 5^th.