Long Prairie’s new school board votes to reinstate beloved superintendent — if he will come back

After the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle school board voted last fall to place its popular superintendent on “special assignment” and install an interim superintendent in his stead, voters responded by ousting an incumbent who led the charge against him and voting in five candidates who promised to bring him back.

In late January, at the first regular meeting since the elected officials were sworn in, the board did just that: It voted to let Superintendent Dan Ludvigson back onto school grounds and to have access to his email again, as well as begin negotiating a new contract.

But Ludvigson’s leadership at the district is still in limbo.

Two of the board members are pushing to open a search process to fill the role instead of renewing Ludvigson’s contract, which expires at the end of June. But — as long as Ludvigson still wants to be superintendent — he’s got the votes to keep him in the west-central Minnesota school district.

Reinstating Ludvigson isn’t simple: The board is now wading through the unprecedented situation of having two superintendents and figuring out how to divide duties between Ludvigson and interim Superintendent Doug Froke, whose contract also runs through June.

“I will be honest with you: I have not seen this happen before. There is no roadmap,” said Jennifer Earley, an attorney working with the district, at the January meeting.

Since then, a committee of board members has been working to determine how to split the superintendent duties and bring Ludvigson back into the fold, according to Board Chair Linda Gohman, who declined to elaborate on the process.

Ludvigson declined to comment, noting that he’s “still navigating what it means to have two superintendents in the district.” But in legal documents filed in late January, Ludvigson addressed his plans, stating, “although those circumstances violated my rights and caused me significant harm, my intention is to try to move forward and work with the newly seated board of education and to put the past behind us as a community.”

The document is part of a civil case involving the former board chair, Kelly Lemke, and a local businessman who questioned Lemke’s “fitness for office” on social media before the election, according to court documents that were filed after the election.

Lemke is claiming the businessman, Randy Mechels, made defamatory statements against her; she is asking for upwards of $50,000 for harming her reputation. In turn, Mechels is arguing Lemke’s “conduct [became] an issue of high importance in the campaign,” noting several candidates campaigned on platforms calling for the reversal of the board’s decision, documents state.

While the case plays out in court, area residents are still wondering why this all happened in the first place, according to Amanda Hinson, a parent and a former local newspaper reporter.

“There was absolutely no reason given,” Hinson said.

In May 2023, the board issued Ludvigson a written reprimand alleging he broke data privacy rules by sharing unredacted job applications on a public website. And last April, Ludvigson was put on a three-day paid suspension after he crumpled up a printout of a photo from a trailer park-themed social mixer attended by some school staff. In the letter regarding the suspension, Lemke wrote he “became very agitated [and] threw the paper in anger during a meeting,” thus failing “to adhere to basic workplace expectations and professional standards.”

Then, last fall, the school board voted to not renew his contract and remove him as superintendent — a move that Jerry Von Korff, an attorney who previously represented Ludvigson, said was illegal. Von Korff said a board cannot hire two superintendents and must properly charge the current one of wrongdoing in a private meeting, which didn’t happen.

So for months, Ludvigson has been barred from school grounds unless the visit was “necessary for my own children’s education,” he said in court documents. ”There was no due process. Without board action, [Lemke] had my computer confiscated, containing all of my correspondence, contacts and other work-related information."

The move prompted a student walkout in support of Ludvigson, who was known for working in the cafeteria as a way to get to know kids. He was also known widely in the community for his efforts to unite the school’s nearly 1,000 students, of whom roughly 60% are Latino.

“They all knew who he was and they loved him,” Hinson said. “Whatever interpersonal issues he had with the board wasn’t happening with most of the staff and students and parents.”

Ludvigson’s ouster prompted a groundswell of support on Election Day, when four candidates who backed Ludvigson won handily. And in a special election for one vacant seat, a candidate who supported Ludvigson beat out Lemke by a 3-to-1 margin.

The next board meeting is Feb. 24. At the last meeting, Tom Zastrow, the top vote-getter in the regular race, reiterated his promise to right the previous board’s wrongs: “A majority of the community — by leaps and bounds — want Daniel reinstated.”