Ryan Kinga, Pillager’s incoming superintendent, highlights project-based roots and enrollment trade-offs

Ryan Kinga introduced himself as Pillager Public School District’s next superintendent, saying he currently serves as the district’s director of teaching and learning and that his background includes both large high school experience and work founding a project-based charter school.

Kinga said he began on a technology path in college but shifted to education after deciding he preferred working with people. He told the audience he graduated from Minnesota State University with a math degree and a secondary teaching license and initially student-taught at the Minnesota New Country School, a rural, project-based charter. "This is where I should be," Kinga said of that early experience, describing the school as non‑traditional and project‑based.

Afterward, Kinga said he taught math at Lakeville High School, a much larger setting with about 13 math teachers and graduating classes near 750 students. He said parents later recruited him to help start a charter in Northfield; Kinga said he spent 13 years at that charter developing curriculum and school systems.

Kinga said those experiences taught him how school operations connect across functions—from food service and buildings to school finance—and informed his approach to program and curriculum decisions. "Even as the teacher I learned how food service was connected to it and buildings and grounds and all these things were connected," he said.

On Pillager’s current strengths, Kinga described a "small school feel" that, combined with open enrollment, has attracted families and allowed the district to sustain electives. He said there are grade levels he considers in a workable band of about 100 to 110 students, and noted the practical challenge of running classes when only three or four students register for them.

Kinga cautioned that if the district grows beyond its current size, it will need additional classrooms and other infrastructure—costs he said must be weighed against program benefits. He raised that trade-off as a central planning issue for the district going forward.

Kinga also offered personal background: he said he is married to Lynn, whom he identified as assistant director of special education for the Paul Bunan education cooperative, and that they have a 13‑year‑old son, Henry. He did not announce specific policy initiatives in these remarks.