Ridder named finalist for Wyoming state post

Springfield Public Schools Superintendent Norm Ridder has been named a finalist for director of the Wyoming Department of Education.

Ridder and two other finalists have been recommended to Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, who is tasked with appointing the director by Dec. 1, according to a news release. The finalists were selected by the Wyoming State Board of Education out of 84 applications and six semifinalists.

"The board has done a yeoman’s job to make sure that the director of the department of education will be an individual who knows education and can move education in Wyoming forward," Mead said in the release.

Other finalists are Tony Apostle, retired superintendent of Puyallup Public Schools in Puyallup, Wash., and Richard Crandall, CEO and chief financial officer for CN Resources and Crandall Corporate Dietitians in Mesa, Ariz., as well as an Arizona state senator.

Mead signed Senate File 104 in January, effectively removing the elected superintendent of public instruction as head of the Wyoming Department of Education and creating the position of an appointed director.
Renny MacKay, communications director for Mead's office, said the governor is expected to make his decision by the end of next week.

Ridder - who has led the local school district since 2005 and has a 2012-13 school year base salary of $159,333 - in February asked the SPS Board of Education not to extend his current contract, which ends in 2015.