Meet Shakopee Schools' interim superintendent

Shakopee Valley News

Name: Gary Anger

Title: Shakopee Public Schools interim superintendent

Background: Anger spent the first few years of his life bouncing around military bases. His father met his Italian mother while in the service. The family settled in Bloomington, where Anger went to Kennedy High School and played soccer. Anger was an elementary teacher, a principal and eventually, superintendent at Zumbrota-Mazeppa Public Schools. Anger took the job as interim superintendent earlier this summer after the departure of former superintendent Rod Thompson, who resigned amid an investigation into possible misuse of district credit cards. Anger's wife is a kindergarten teacher in a different district, and he has two daughters, a dog and an office plant named Robert Plant.

What are your main goals for your work within the district?

My main goals are to re-establish trust from the office of the superintendent to all of the staff in the district and to the community members. Another main goal of mine is to really rebuild the culture in this district to a culture of positivity where we're focused on the positive things that are going on this district, because there are so many amazing things going on in the Shakopee schools...

One of my other goals is that everybody in this district knows the superintendent and sees the superintendent in a very positive light and I've been working really hard at that already. I have met literally hundreds and hundreds of not just staff members, but community members and to a T, they're all just giving me a virtual hug. They're really happy to be engaged in positive conversations with the superintendent. So, those are my real big goals — build really positive relationships and get the focus back on learning and our students.

What do you think the biggest challenge will be? 

I think the biggest challenge is going to be building a budget restructure and restructuring what this district has done from the standpoint of budgeting. I think that's going to be a really big challenge because when a district is losing fund balance, has a pattern of losing fund balance, turning that around and starting to gain back that fund balance is a great challenge.

What do you see as the most positive aspect of Shakopee Public Schools?

For me, it's been the people. The students that I've met and I've met so many students and they're like, "Oh my gosh, the superintendent, it's so nice to meet you." And the staff members have just been incredibly gracious and warm and welcoming — and the community members. I've been to Rotary and countless other events and meetings already and they've just been so kind and so welcoming and have just echoed very positive statements about my presence and their desire to help the schools in any way they can.

What are some specific steps you can take to move past the errors of the former administration?

That's a great question. First of all, I think it's really important for us to identify the actual problems that were created and/or exist and then to listen to people about how those problems may have impacted them or what their perceptions of those problems are and then communicate those problems. You've seen us doing some of that already. We've been very, very open about some pretty significant problems already. And then really to act on those problems in a strategic and logical way.

There are examples of that already that information has come to us that have been past problems that have occurred and are impacting us moving forward in the district. So, I really feel like that's the way to go about it. We really focus in on what's the problem? What's the core of that problem? Listen to everybody that has input or that problem is affecting, communicate the problems to our community so we're transparent and they know about it and then to act strategically, to move past that problem, to fix the problem so that we can focus on the future and the positives that we can bring back to Shakopee schools.

How will your work benefit the students?

I'm really a student-centered administrator, you can probably tell. I love being around the kids, I love hearing from them, talking about what they're learning. I am a teacher at heart. Teaching and learning is my passion. I really want to know what the kids are doing and I also want to know what's not working for them. Every job I've had, I think you could ask the kids and they would say, "Mr. Anger cared about us." And that's what I want the Shakopee students to be able to say.

I was joking around with football players at the high school in the cafeteria area yesterday and it was just really fun. With our ambassadors for the academies, we were taking pictures of each other and our selfie didn't work and then I said, "OK, what hashtag do you want for this tweet?" They came up with #Shakobassadors so that's me — I love to interact with the kids so it helps me do my job better if I know how the kids are feeling about things and I wouldn't want any student to feel left out in our schools. I want them all to feel like they belong and there's a place for them and there's learning for them and programming for them in our district.

You say you're a "teacher at heart," so can you explain why you think you can help more in an administrative role as opposed to continuing to teach?

By keeping that thread of teaching in my heart, teachers feel that. When I'm entering staff development pieces that I've been doing every day here and I'm asking legit questions. Yesterday, our (English Learners) teachers for instance were talking about the access scores, which are the scores our (EL) students get, equivalent to kind of the MCAs. They knew I was asking actual questions that I've got a base of knowledge. I don't want to come across as an expert, but I genuinely want to be engaged in their conversations about teaching and learning. It's real. It's not fake. It's being real about those things, being involved, I've been to data meetings the buildings have had, next week I've got every single school staff meeting scheduled on my calendar beyond just greeting everyone next Thursday with my presentation because I want to know the culture of those schools.I want to know what's important to those people and they're going to see me very visibly in their buildings, in their classrooms because that's where you can be a better administrator.

You can't support your people unless you know who your people are and that's really my job to know who they are, what they need. My job is to help them and to serve them and to serve our community. It goes the same with the community members. I've taken so many calls from people and their response has been, "thank you for hearing me and talking to me." I can't help them if I don't know what their issues are so it's really important for me to listen first as I'm communicating.

What can community members expect from you in the upcoming years?

They can expect visibility, a very, very high work ethic, and they can expect integrity from me. They can expect responsiveness and someone that's going to listen to them and truly cares about the opinions that our community members have. I'm here to serve them so I can serve our students better.

What can staff expect from you in the upcoming years? 

Some of the very similar things. Visibility that they're really not used to from their superintendent. Collegiality. One thing that's a little different is they can expect recognition. I spend every day writing notes, recognizing people. I've probably written ... all the new teachers, all the mentors, I've literally written hundreds of notes already for staff members. I feel like everybody does such an amazing job at a district like Shakopee and it's really important for their great work to be recognized. I also think something they can expect from me is that they are going to have a voice and be able to really be involved in the decision-making through sharing their expertise and their knowledge.

What is a fun fact about yourself?

I asked my wife what I should tell you for my fun fact and she said, "Well, you sing." So, I'm a singer. I sing at weddings and funerals and things like that. That's kind of a fun fact. I've got a wedding in September I'm singing at. I actually sang with — my brother had a band — stuff like that way back in the 1980s. I sing once in a while. Don't try looking on YouTube for it, there are no hidden tapes.

Is there anything you want to add?

I just want to reiterate how honored I am to be here, how excited I am. These first two weeks have been just amazing for me ... I just really feel like I need to be in the Shakopee schools right now and the Shakopee schools need me to be in the Shakopee schools right now. I'm just so honored and so excited to be here, that was the one thing I want to add. I love my job already, which is pretty amazing within two weeks and we've done a lot of work in a short amount of time and we've got a lot more to do. I'm just so blessed to be here.