Some Bismarck Public School principals will be at different schools next school year.

Three elementary principals are retiring the end of this school year, and the district reassigned some of its elementary principals.

"It's a matter of give and take,"assistant superintendent Rick Buresh said about the new principal assignments.

The retiring principals are Rolland Messmer at Centennial Elementary, Barb Livermont at Grimsrud Elementary and Claudia Tomanek at Moses Elementary. Will-Moore Principal Jason Hornbacher will be principal at Centennial, Prairie Rose Principal Connie Herman will be principal at Grimsrud and Northridge Principal Lynn Wolf will be principal at Moses.

With three retirements, the district is looking to fill four vacancies. The vacancies are at Highland Acres, Northridge, Prairie Rose and Roosevelt elementary schools. The principal at Highland Acres, Joyce Hinman, will be principal at Will-Moore next year, creating the vacancy at Highland Acres. Fran Rosenberg, who is principal at Roosevelt, also is principal at Riverside. She will continue as principal at Riverside, and the district will hire for a principal at Roosevelt. Rosenberg is the last principal in the district to be in charge of two schools. It was once a common practice in the district for principals to be in charge of two schools, Buresh said.

The district decided to hire one more principal so that each school has a principal, he said. Principals of smaller schools have duties such as Title I coordinator, homeless coordinator or counselor supervisor added to their responsibilities, he said.

The district has moved principals before, usually because of a retirement, he said. The principals who were moved were chosen because of the length of time they served at their current schools, about seven to eight years.

"It's pretty long for an assignment," Buresh said.

The district does not mandate elementary principal rotation, like what is being considered in Mandan Public Schools. The Mandan board had voted in November for the superintendent to create a principal rotation. Superintendent Kent Hjelmstad presented a rotation based on principal retirements at the board's March committee meetings. The Mandan board has not voted on the proposed rotation.

Applications for new principals in the Bismarck district are due today. New principals will be selected by mid-April.

Some of the new principals could be Bismarck Public School teachers, and they'll already have some insight into what it takes for the job. The district has a principal internship program. It lets teachers pair up with a principal and learn what it's like to be an administrator. The district will hire the best candidate for the job, which could mean it is a person from outside the district, Buresh said.

There could be more principal shuffling in the next two to three years as more principals retire, although Buresh doesn't expect to have three in one year again.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)