 Bemidji school superintendent finalist Rochelle Johnson was the first to interview for the job with the community this week. Reporter Cheryl Moore tells us what she hopes to bring to the district. This is my home. This is my district. I'm invested in this district. Um, I think I've got extensive training. I think I have extensive experience that I can bring to this district. Bemidji school superintendent finalist Rochelle Johnson is no stranger to the community. She's a Bemidji State University alum who is also taught in the district. Johnson has been the cast like being a superintendent for the past four years. She applied to this job in Bemidji because she says it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. My husband and I chose this community. Um, we're originally from the red lake and years ago we moved our family to this district. This has become our community of choice. We love the district. We love all of the things that we can do in in this community. A number of topics came up during Johnson's community interview today, including incorporating native programming, reducing class sizes, sexual education and the importance of school safety. I know safety is a big issue, so we'll take a look at the safety. The Bemidji school district has a new elementary school and we need to take a look at that transition and what is the plan for that and how it's going to impact students, how it's going to impact families and how it's going to impact staff. The Bemidji school board sat quietly during the discussion to gauge how the community felt about the candidate. I would just like to say that as most of us know, Bemidji is a really unique community. It's the hub for those local towns and reservations. So I personally think you might be the key that Bemidji needs to kind of bring the local cultures together. And if given the job, Johnson says a big goal of hers will be moving the district forward. I think that we're gonna continue to improve. We're gonna continue improve in technology and curriculum, student achievement. We're gonna do everything we can to close those achievement gaps. We're gonna increase student attendance. We are gonna be, we want to become the district of choice for all of those students. Reporting of Bemidji, Sheryl Moore, Lakeland News. Tomorrow, superintendent, candidate Tim Lutz will be in town to interview for the job. We'll have a recap of that for you tomorrow night right here on Lakeland News. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.