Nate Hansen Selected to Fill Void on Saline School Board

The Saline Board of Education selected Nate Hansen to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Brad Gerbe. The board voted 6-0 to appoint Hansen after it was deadlocked between Hansen and Kelly Van Singel. Tim Austin, Jason Tizedes, and Jennifer Steben supported Hansen. Mike McVey, Darcy Berwick, and Lauren Gold supported Van Singel. McVey broke the deadlock by changing his vote for Hansen.

This all took place at a special meeting Monday evening.

The meeting began with interviews of Ryan Davidson, Hansen, Marco Celsius Magbitang, Van Singel and Luke Schmerberg.

It was announced that Christy Lilley had pulled out of the process. 

Julie Kelley was on a long-planned trip and was unable to attend the meeting.

After the interviews, McVey asked each board member to choose their three candidates.

Tizedes chose Davidson, Hansen and Kelley. Austin chose Hansen and Kelley. McVey, Steben, Berwick and Gold selected Schmerberg, Hansen and Van Singel.

Hansen impressed members of the board during the interview and in his previous work during the superintendent search.

Hansen is a commercial pilot who moved to Saline about 18 months ago. He's originally from Iowa.

His first exposure to the school board was watching members of the football team challenge the board after the controversy about the forfeits last fall.

"For them to get up in front of the school board and take that type of risk really moved me and I felt so proud of the kids for what they were doing," he said. "25 years years from now, the games won't matter. They know they won those three games. What's going to matter is the maturity and the leadership they learned going through the experience."

Hansen had positive things to say about the staff. After a visit to the school, their son moved to Saline a month before his parents so he could get there for the start of track.

"The reason why it worked so well is because the staff was so welcoming and overwhelmingly receptive to what he needed," Hansen said, crediting track coach Corbin Brown especially. "I felt compelled to pay it forward."

Hansen's work on the effort to replace retiring superintendent Steve Laatsch was also mentioned by several board members.

"I was so impressed with the transparency in the whole process, so I wanted to pay it forward," he said.

Hansen told the board he's been made aware of some issues in the district, but he said he's a problem solver and that he knows how to build relationships.

Asked how he would want alumni to remember their time at Saline, Hansen said he wants graduates to go out into the world as good collaborators, critical thinkers, creative and be strong communicators - referencing the goals in the district's "compass." More than that, though, Hansen he wanted students to create good memories that they'd talk about years later at reunions.

Hansen was asked about creating policy and building consensus. He talked about "normalized deviation," a phrase in aviation. 

"It's a way to get yourself in a crash. Every time you do something you know is wrong and you get away with it, it normalizes that behavior, so you have to take a strict approach to stick with policy," he said. 

Hansen said dealing with controversy could be a strength of his after years of dealing with issues in aviation.

"You have to be willing to take a punch. You're going to get some blowback on decisions that are not policy. If you can sit there and take a punch, in two or three weeks down the the conversation is going to change, where people say 'I've got a lot of respect for that guy. He made that decision and he stood up in front of people and he took a punch,'" Hansen said. "I've done that in my career as an evaluator."

Board members also said they appreciated Hansen's financial experience.

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