Carbon School District Superintendent Steve Carlsen will be leaving the school district as of June 30, 2017. He was appointed Tuesday night as the new superintendent of Box Elder County School District in northern Utah. He replaces Superintendent Ron Tolman who after three years in that capacity will retire this summer.
“I have loved working in Carbon County with both the school district and in getting to know the community,” said Carlsen on Tuesday evening. “This move is not about this district it is about opportunity.”
It is also about family. He and his wife’s children along with other relatives live along the Wasatch Front and in southeastern Idaho.
“That district is right in the middle of them, and that will make it easier to be a part of their lives,” he said.
Carlsen will take over a school district that is considerably bigger than Carbon. Box Elder has over 11,000 students and has everything from a small school house with kindergarten through 10th grade students in Grouse Creek to Box Elder High School which is a 4A school with a little less than 1500 students located in Brigham City. It will be a big leap for him, just as the jump to Carbon was in 2011 when he came to Price to serve as top administrator. Carlsen brought experience with rural schools and a broad background in education, as he had served as a teacher, administrator and superintendent in North Summit School District for 13 years. That district was half the size of Carbon at the time.
Carlsen has a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University and a master’s degree from Idaho State University.
The Carbon Board of Education now has two choices in replacing Carlsen. They can begin a search for a new superintendent or they can appoint an interim superintendent since the June 30 date is approaching very quickly.