Troy hires school superintendent

Troy School Board trustees cited

innovative programming and a heavy focus on academic excellence as

their reasons for choosing a high school principal from Cut Bank as

the new Troy school superintendent.

Dan Wendt will take on the role July 1,

replacing Brady Selle, who last December announced his plans to

resign.

School board chair Steve Garrett said

he was impressed with ideas and programs that Wendt has helped

implement since becoming Cut Bank High School’s principal three

years ago.

“From my perspective, I think his value

system and academic leadership will bring a good asset to our

community,” Garrett said. “He’s a pretty rounded individual and has

real high aspirations for us academically.”

Wendt taught business and computer

classes for 21 years before moving to Cut Bank for the principal

position. The board chose him after an interviewing process last

month with four other finalist candidates.

“I was impressed with him from the very

beginning…,” trustee Heather McDougall said. “He shared a lot about

what he did to make Cut Bank’s school better.”

Garrett and McDougall cited an honors

program he initiated to give students incentives to perform their

best academically. McDougall also liked ideas Wendt had concerning

team building. She believes he can use some of them to create more

comradery between the elementary and junior and senior high

schools.

Part of running an operation with 85

employees in charge of educating and keeping kids safe is putting

out fires – resolving employee disagreements, talking to concerned

parents and more. McDougall said that she believes Wendt will

handle conflicts well.

“I think he’s going to be a

decision-maker,” she said, “but he’s going to be very

diplomatic.”

The good fit goes both ways – Wendt

said he is excited to move to Troy, a district with a good

reputation in the state of Montana. His vision for Troy Schools

will depend on information he gathers from those on the ground, he

said.

“One of the first things I would like

to do is start a dialogue with the people in Troy and find out what

they perceive is the status of the schools and where they want to

go,” he said. “Troy has been an excellent school district and

that’s one of the reasons I applied there.”

At Cut Bank and in his prior teaching

jobs, Wendt has witnessed some of the same challenges as Troy, such

as attracting quality teachers. He said he was pleasantly surprised

to learn that Troy natives have been known to return to their

hometown and become teachers.

“You hope that you find people that are

willing to start and stay in the area,” he said. “The wonderful

thing about the Troy district is that a lot of the teachers in Troy

are people who graduated from Troy and came back, and that makes a

big difference.”

He will be moving to Troy with his wife

and their daughter.

Wendt holds a master’s degree in

education from Montana State University. He received his bachelor’s

degree in business administration with a minor in computer science

from Montana Tech in Butte.

Wendt has worked as a teacher, coach,

technology coordinator and principal at schools in Idaho and

Montana.