School superintendent pleads guilty to DWI

The superintendent of the Greenway and Nashwauk-Keewatin school districts has pleaded guilty to a charge of driving while intoxicated in State District Court in Grand Rapids, according to court documents.
Mark Adams, 50, made the guilty plea at the Itasca County Courthouse on Sept. 2 as part of a plea arrangement in which additional charges for indecent exposure and disorderly conduct were dismissed. He was sentenced to one year of probation, fined $700 and ordered to attend both a chemical dependency evaluation and a Mothers Against Drunk Driving impact panel.
“I really can’t comment,” Adams said. “My job is to be a leader and a proactive superintendent of schools, and that’s what I’m doing.”
Adams was arrested July 3 at his home. He admitted to officers that he had been out drinking at the Nashwauk Fourth of July Festival. Holiday Stationstore employees in Grand Rapids had called authorities, saying they’d observed a man urinating on the floor of a back room at the store and later adjusting himself in a store aisle before exiting.
When asked about his legal matters last week, Adams said he wanted to take the high road and focus on “how we leave the education system in Northeast Minnesota - and that’s better than we found it.”