SARTELL (WJON News) -- In part three of our series profiling the Sartell-St. Stephen School District's Superintendent Candidates we look at St. Cloud Assistant Superintendent Michael Rivard. Rivard has been in education for over 25 years and lived in Sartell for over 20 years. Rivard says Sartell is his home town and he has always wanted to work with Sartell students:

"We found our true community to call our own. It's my hometown. Both our son and daughter have flourished going through Sartell-St. Stephen School District, benefiting from really great teachers and receiving an incredible education so the opportunity to work with Sartell-St. Stephen students, staff, and community has always been a career goal."

Rivard has spent his entire career with the St. Cloud School District. He started out as the school social and clinical social worker and has been Principal, Supervisor of Special Education, and has been Assistant Superintendent for the last 3 years. Rivard says working with families is at the center of everything he does:

"It's that opportunity that knowing, that in, with working with all students that you're partnering with families cause families have hopes and dreams for their children and for me partnering with families was to ensure parents hopes and dreams are at the center of everything that we were doing."

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Rivard obtained his Bachelor's and Doctorate degrees in Education from St. Cloud State University and his Master's in Social Work from the University of Minnesota. Rivard says his parents instilled in him the importance of long-term commitments:

"My parents instilled in me this kind of this importance of long-term commitments, hard work, accountability, opportunity through education and service, and for me I look at being part of education as being about service."

Rivard also served eight years in the Army Reserve. He says his time in the armed forces instilled in him the qualities of discipline and selflessness and the idea that service is about creating opportunities for everyone:

"As I was working and doing my service, through the Army Reserve, it brought to me this idea of what service was really about and creating opportunities for everyone and what greater service is there than being in the field of education, working with kids and youth as you try to help them discover what their hopes and dreams are."

Rivard says he feels compelled to serve the community and he has coached in Sartell, currently refs youth hockey, and leads through trust, accountability, and integrity. He has been a member of the Stearns County Community Advisory Board and is currently on the Stearns County Human Services Task Force. He says he loves that Sartell-St. Stephen schools emphasize the relationship between school and family and those ideals match his own personal values.

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