IRON MOUNTAIN — The Iron Mountain Schools Board cast a unanimous vote to hire a Norway native as their next athletic director during Monday’s meeting. But this decision was not without some opposition from the public.

Former North Central athletic director Joseph Pontbriand, a 2006 Norway High School graduate, was selected from seven candidates interviewed for the job — which also includes serving as the Community Schools recreation and enrichment director and providing administrative support when needed.

Board trustee Foz Burgoon asked what differentiated Pontbriand from the other candidates, noting she does not serve on the athletic committee so she was not involved in the interviews.

“It was an excellent candidate pool and we interviewed seven. We looked at each person’s strengths and experience and how that would meet our goal of moving forward and he (Pontbriand) met our expectations for our program,” noted Superintendent Raph Rittenhouse.

Board Vice President Rob Langsford said he felt comfortable with coming to this decision to hire Pontbriand, but added that you don’t often get seven good candidates for a position.

“He (Pontbriand) will help us move ahead — in making this decision it was putting the right pieces in the right order. And this was the best fit for our program,” he said.

Langsford added he was pleased with the process that Rittenhouse provided to the committee so they could interview all seven people the same way.

Community Schools Director Julie Wonders told the board that she wasn’t given the opportunity to provide a list of duties to the committee for the Community Schools portion of the job.

“I was never asked for it. Chris (Hartman) had it, but I don’t know what version you used in this process. And the position with Community Schools is a full year contract and I don’t know if that was discussed with the candidates,” Wonders said.

Board Secretary Lisa Basanese asked Rittenhouse to check on that and get the right list from Wonders.

Burgoon agreed that Wonders should have been included in the interview process.

During public comment, Steve Juul of Iron Mountain felt that with an issue like this that people wanted to talk about, it should have been allowed before action was taken.

Public comment at Iron Mountain Schools board meetings comes after the action items on the agenda.

Juul added that he had emailed the board members offering suggestions about filling the athletic director position. And he said the board could have taken into consideration what people had to say before voting on it.

Although he wished the new athletic director success, Juul said that the board could have gone in another direction from the resumes he saw.

“We are here because we send our children here. I hope things work out for you, but I’m not in favor of it.”

Langsford noted that the board wants to hear from the public, but he feels the decision made Monday was the right one to move the athletic program forward.

“A lot of learning needs to go on for anyone in a new position. But we can’t forget he came from a very successful program too,” Langsford said noting that Pontbriand had served as the athletic director of the North Central Area Schools.

North Central won five state championships — three straight in Class D boys basketball and two straight in eight-man football with Pontbriand as AD.