The second night of Cassopolis Public Schools superintendent interviews featured three candidates with previous experience at a special board of education meeting at Squires Education Center Feb. 15.

Interviewed were Goshen Community Schools Assistant Superintendent Angela Piazza, Pottersville Superintendent Tim Donahue and Litchfield Superintendent Corey Helgesen.

Each candidate was interviewed for an hour. They were each asked a series of 12 questions with follow-up questions from board members if they so desired. The candidate was then allowed to ask some questions of the board.

Piazza has 25 years of experience in education, including Title 1 director at Lake Ridge Schools and principal at the Calumet (Indiana) New Tech High School.

She is a graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University and Oakland City University where she received her doctorate.

She has worked at Goshen Community Schools since 2014.

“Integrity is everything,” Piazza answered when asked what role it played in her career. “How the people I am currently supervising as well as people I was over in the past would describe my leadership style as coaching model. I believe at the core of everything that I do is to help build the capacity of the people I work with.

“I am a very collaborative leader. Everyone feels valued and involved.”

Donahue is in his seventh year as superintendent at Pottersville, which is just west of Lansing.

He is originally from the Detroit area. He is a graduate of Oakland University, Michigan State University and Wayne State University.

He spent three years as principal at Pottersville before being named superintendent.

“We have been in the school of choice business since I have been superintendent in 2010 so I know it is an important element of a marketing plan for a district,” Donahue said in response to the question about how much background he has in marketing a school district. “We are a small district among many larger districts in Eaton County so it gets to be a little bit competitive. We as a district looked at how could we best convince families that Pottersville Public Schools is somewhere that they want their students. We had to make sure that we were offering the best programs and the best possibilities.”

Helgesen, who is one of five finalists for the Battle Creek Lakeview superintendent position, is a 1993 graduate of Lakeview High School.

He is a graduate of Western Michigan University. He has a doctorate from the Florida-based Nova Southeastern University.

Helgesen is currently the K-12 principal at Litchfield as well as the district’s superintendent.

“One great opportunity for students is to be in touch with where they are going to be going some day,” Helgesen answered when asked about the role technology plays in today’s education. “Technology is not going to go away.”

Helgesen said it took him a while to embrace the technology because he is a “traditionalist” who believes there is nothing wrong with a pencil and a piece of paper and “good old-fashioned learning.

“But if you do not embrace and tap into technology then you are doing a great disservice to the students of tomorrow,” Helgesen said.

The board at a special meeting Monday night (see related story) narrowed the field down to four candidates for a second round of interviews.

Those interviews will be at Squires Education Center beginning at 5:45 p.m. Monday.