(Credit: Susie Hedalen/ Shannon O’Brien)
Early statewide voting results show that Republican Susie Hedalen, the Superintendent of Public Schools Townsend, is headed to become the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Montana. She holds an early 20-point lead over Democrat Shannon O’Brien, with just more than 21,000, or 3% of the vote counted.
The race for the top education official in Montana pits two longtime educators against each other. Hedalen has experience as the leader of public schools in Townsend, while O’Brien has served as an educator, a college dean and the education adviser to former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock.
The next OPI chief will replace outgoing Republican Elsie Arntzen, who became the first Republican in nearly 40 years to win consecutive terms in the position that previously was a Democratic stronghold.
Arntzen, a former longtime lawmaker from Billings, had launched an unsuccessful campaign to become the Republican nominee for Congress in Montana’s Second District, but she was beaten in a crowded primary field by Troy Downing.
The next Superintendent of Public Instruction will have several notable challenges ahead as the department has faced record turnover and recently received an audit that showed as much as $67 million in federal funds were either misspent or not documented properly. The next superintendent will also work with the newly implemented public charter school programs, which have garnered positive response from districts.
The superintendent’s office will also have to navigate several controversial items in the future that have become endemic to public school conversations across America including transgender athletes in sports, book banning and a movement to increase parental rights.