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Solvejg Wastvedt
St. Paul

Eden Prairie schools chief tapped to run troubled Perpich arts center

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Curt Tryggestad, currently superintendent of Eden Prairie Schools, will take over in August as executive director of the troubled Perpich Center for Arts Education.

Tryggestad has run the Eden Prairie system since 2012. Before that, he was superintendent of Little Falls Community Schools in central Minnesota and Esko Public Schools in northeastern Minnesota, the center said in a statement Thursday.

He began his career as an instrumental music teacher. The Minnesota Association of School Administrators named him the 2017 Minnesota Superintendent of the Year.

The Perpich Center, which runs arts outreach programs as well as an arts high school in Golden Valley, narrowly survived.

The center has been in turmoil since before former director Sue Mackert retired in January. Shortly after Mackert's retirement, the state legislative auditor released a critical report on the center, noting diminished outreach to school districts and low enrollment and test scores at the center's Golden Valley high school.

"I am anxious to begin the process of moving to Perpich and getting started," Tryggestad said in the release.

"We have come a long way since January," Perpich board chair Ben Vander Kooi said in the statement. "The board members have been working nonstop, and the legislature and the governor's office are supporting our work. Next is working with the new ED to create a strategic plan that will carry us forward to even greater success."