A familiar face will temporarily lead St. Paul schools when Superintendent Joe Gothard steps down from his role next month.

John Thein, who served as interim superintendent of St. Paul Public Schools from 2016-17, has agreed to take the reins of the district once again on May 20. The district’s Board of Education approved his contract at a Wednesday night meeting.

School board chair Halla Henderson said the board chose Thein due to his experience with the district and enthusiasm for the job.“His knowledge of and connection to our school communities will be indispensable as we begin our search for the next permanent superintendent,” she said in a news release following Thein’s appointment.

Thein will lead the state’s second-largest school district, which has about 33,000 students and is among the state’s most diverse, until district leadership can find a permanent replacement. The district said it plans to hire an outside firm to help with the search.

In February, Gothard, who has led St. Paul schools since 2017, accepted a job with his hometown school district in Madison, Wis. His contract, which had many incentives to get him to stay in St. Paul, started in 2023 and was supposed to end in 2026.

The school board on Wednesday agreed to release Gothard from his contract early. Gothard sent his resignation on Feb. 26. In a change to his contract approved by the board Wednesday, Gothard’s last day on the job in St. Paul will be May 17. He’ll collect his normal pay until then, but he won’t be able to cash out his accumulated vacation.

Gothard told the school board his first day on the job in Madison will be May 20, the day Thein takes over as interim. Gothard in a statement from the district said it was a “familiar feeling” passing the baton back to Thein, who held the role before he took over.

SPPS will pay Thein a salary of $230,000 a year, according to his employment contract with the district. And while he starts the job on May 20, he’ll begin providing his services to the district “as needed” starting April 29, something he’ll get paid for at a rate of $111 an hour.

Thein was superintendent of Roseville Area Schools for 17 years before he retired in 2015. He became interim superintendent of SPPS in 2016 after the board ousted former Superintendent Valeria Silva.

He stepped down after St. Paul Public Schools hired Gothard, who at the time was superintendent of the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District.

In addition to St. Paul, Thein has served as interim superintendent of ROCORI Public Schools, a school district southwest of St. Cloud.

In a statement released by the district, Thein said he was grateful to serve SPPS once again.

“The memories of my previous tenure at SPPS are still fresh, and I am excited to reconnect with the students and staff we serve,” he said.

Thein faces a challenging budget picture as he returns to the school district he briefly led seven years ago.

St. Paul Public Schools faces a $107.7 million budget shortfall and has been working to make big cuts. The shortfall is in large part tied to the expiration of federal pandemic aid and declining enrollment.

District officials have identified about $71.3 million in cuts but still need to find other areas to trim. The district needs to get a new budget together by June.