Mandan School District hired its new superintendent Tuesday.

Beulah Superintendent Wilfred Volesky accepted the position, which was offered to him on April 6. The Mandan School Board accepted the contract at its board meeting Tuesday night.

Volesky will be paid $105,000, plus about $8,800 in benefits. He makes about $87,000, plus benefits, as superintendent in Beulah. Retiring Mandan Superintendent Kent Hjelmstad made $111,395, plus about $8,900 in benefits.

Volesky was offered a three-year contract, with increases to his salary after the first and second year. He will make $109,200 and the third year salary is to be negotiated at that time.

The superintendent's benefits include a family health plan, life insurance, vision insurance, dental insurance and disability insurance.

The board selected a new superintendent because Hjelmstad asked in January to retire at the end of the school year. Hjelmstad has been superintendent for 10 years in Mandan. He is in the second year of a three-year contract.

Hjelmstad also will receive a severance package that is equal to 5 percent of his current yearly salary and one year of health insurance for each year of employment. This is $125,697 for Hjelmstad's 10 years of service.

Volesky's contract does not have a severance package, like Hjelmstad's contract. Instead, Volesky will have a tax shelter annuity, or 403(b), based on 12 installments of 5 percent of his salary.

Volesky applied for the Mandan superintendent position because it is a larger district and closer to two of his children, who live in Bismarck. He has been superintendent in Beulah for 13 years.

He started his career in education in 1972 in Hettinger Public Schools as a business teacher. He moved to South Heart Public Schools in 1974. In 1981, he became the secondary school principal at Center Public School. In 1986, he was superintendent of Bishop Ryan High School. He then moved to the Bowman-Rhame School District as superintendent in 1990. He has been superintendent in Beulah since 1994.

He has a bachelor's degree from Dickinson State University and an educational administration degree from Northern State College in Aberdeen, S.D.

He is a member of the American Association of School Administrators, North Dakota Superintendent's Association, North Dakota Council of Educational Leaders, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and North Dakota Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. He was North Dakota Superintendent of the Year in 2001.

Five finalists were interviewed for the position between Thursday and Monday. In addition to Volesky, the finalists were Vince Reep, business director and director of personnel in Dickinson Public Schools; Ed Slocum, superintendent of New Town Public Schools; Warren Larson, superintendent of Williston Public Schools; and Chuck Dunlop, superintendent of Turtle Lake School District in Wisconsin.

In other matters:

The board approved the new early retirement policy, set to begin July 1, 2006. It rescinds the district's old policy of offering teachers or other district employees health care or a cash buyout if they retire before turning 65. The new policy allows for the district to approve a cash buyout for early retirement requests if the district can afford it. A cash buyout pays the teacher or other district employee 40 percent of their salary and puts it into a 403(b) account. The new policy ends in six years.

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