Rick Schultz honored at statewide convention

NRHEG School board chair Rick Schultz was among only 13 people statewide honored for having earned more than 300 “training points” by taking part in Minnesota School Board Association (MSBA) leadership and educational events. The acknowledgment took place during the organization’s annual “recognition luncheon” at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Thursday, Jan. 16.

Schultz, whose tenure with the NRHEG school board began in 2006, has been its chair for 18 years, since shortly after joining. He explains school board members are encouraged to learn about many aspects of school administration by taking part in training sessions and leadership events; that participation is measured in “hours.”

He says the events he has attended have been very helpful in navigating the many expectations imposed on school districts and keeping current as those expectations change. The MSBA, he says, also offers a range of helpful resources for school leaders when they come across a process or circumstance which is new to them. “Somewhere in the state, some other district has experienced it,” he observes. “And we can use information about their situation to help us with ours.”

Schultz is a lifelong NRHEG resident, having graduated from New Richland-Hartland in 1988. He and his wife Jackie have a farm west of New Richland. Their daughter Hallie graduated from NRHEG in 2024.

Schultz says he chose to run for school board because he has always appreciated the many important roles a school district plays, including building a sense of community and connection and, of course, preparing students for their futures. “I wanted to do my part in seeing the success of NRHEG continue,” he remembers.

He suggests that, rather than being honored for completing 300 training hours, he should be expressing his gratitude for the networking and information he’s received. “Being on the school board has presented me with a lot of learning opportunities,” he comments. Among the most important attributes for the role, he speculates, is a willingness to collaborate–to overcome the tendency to be biased toward one’s own preferences and give fair and reasonable consideration to input and suggestions offered by others.

He says his time and experience with the board have helped him appreciate the importance of having skilled and dedicated staff members.

He is also grateful, he says, for the NRHEG community’s support and positive approach when it comes to the school district. The number of people who attend school events and who show genuine interest in school board business–even when they are not angry about something–indicates how much they value offering a quality education to the community’s children.

Based on what he hears from other MSBA members, he says, “Not every district gets that.”

He remembers when he was a student in the district, long-time English teacher Gary Nordlie told him, “Schultz, someday you’re going to be a school board member.” At the time, he said, the suggestion seemed somewhat ludicrous, given he was “not the most dedicated” of students. The memory makes him chuckle, as do other experiences he would not have foreseen, including reading books to classrooms of elementary students. Over time, he speculates, his day-to-day thinking has become nearly as intertwined with the welfare of the school district as with his own business affairs.

He recalls a stormy day last summer when he and Jackie had gone for a drive to get away from their everyday worries. “Within one hour,” he says good-naturedly, “I got phone calls letting me know hail was falling on my crops, there was water in the school basement, and a tree had fallen on my pickup.”

Among the most positive elements of his time on the board, he says, is the controversial–but ultimately successful and beneficial–choice to merge the elementary sites at the Ellendale site. He is also pleased with the attractive, appealing, persistently improving appearance and functionality of the district’s buildings. He mentions as well that one of the great strengths of the district is how well it continues to operate while keeping its financial impact on area taxpayers one of the lowest in the region.

“Being a school board member isn’t for everyone,” he observes. “But for me, it’s been an honor and a privilege.”