by Dave DeMars
news@thenewsleaders.com
“The most rewarding thing about being on the school board is when you get to hand out diplomas to all those kids on graduation night,” said Michelle Meyer, outgoing chair of the Sartell-St. Stephen School District. “That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?”
Meyer has spent 13 years on the board (two stints), making policy, serving on committees and generally trying to make Sartell-St. Stephen schools a good place to learn and grow. One can hardly have a conversation with her without hearing that passion to improve and make better come through in animated bursts of conversation.
Part of that passion derives from her background. She was a teacher for several years. That was one of the sparks that fueled the passion. And then she took a few years off to raise a family. Both of those things helped to make her want to be involved and to serve. She reminisced about how she came to be involved.
“I was a stay-at-home mom – we had four kids,” she said. “I was at home, and I helped with Pine Meadow – the bonding to build that building – and I got to know (former superintendent) Kay Worner pretty well. She asked me if I had ever thought about running for the board.”
That was the impetus. Of course Meyer makes it all seem rather matter-of-fact as though everyone serves on a bonding committee, volunteers at school, serves on the Sartell-St. Stephen Education Foundation for 12 years and then decides to run for school board.
“It was a way for me to be connected – it was a way for me to get back and involved,” she said. “I didn’t really have a reason, I just loved education, and I just care.”
She served two terms and then decided to take a break. She continued to serve on committees, volunteer when help was needed, but she was somewhat content watching her kids grow and being part of their lives. Things were going OK, she said, so she felt like she could take that break. There would always be time later on, she told herself.
But fate has a way of intervening. The board changed. People resigned. Superintendents changed. The board and the district seemed to lose its moorings – its focus. Some unpopular decisions were made and when the district made the six o’clock news, she was shocked.
“I mean I was just a mom – I hadn’t been to a board meeting in three years,” Meyer said. “It was so different. And within a year, two board members resigned. It was chaotic.”
Various people in the district came to her and asked if she would consider running for the board again. She convinced a few other people to run, and together, they won. They have refashioned the board to reflect some different ideas and values.
“Our goal was to restore transparency, which we did, and get board members who were more engaged,” she said.
With all of her experience, one might guess she has some insight into what it might take to be a successful board member. Her answer might surprise some because of its simplicity.
“You have to care about students and your community and want to make it better,” Meyer said.
She said it’s not about any personal benefit that might accrue to a person, it’s about how it will affect the students and their growth and educational experience. She explained the first time she ran for the board it was simply because she cared and wanted to make a difference. The second time she said she had a more focused view. She felt leadership had been lacking and that she could make a difference – could make it better. Making things better doesn’t mean just doing what is popular. Often, the board has to make unpopular decisions.
“We closed a school out in St. Stephen during my first term, and that wasn’t a very poplar decision with the people in St. Stephen,” she said. “But for the district as a whole, it was the right thing to do.”
Decisions have to be made based on what is the right thing to do for the students and the district, not just a small group of partisan people.
“That was really hard,” she said. “It was one of the hardest things to do.”
While decisions that are hard have to be made, one can do other things that one hopes will lessen the sting of some hard decisions. In the case of St. Stephen, the district made a concerted effort to place schools more in the center of the district closer to St. Stephen in order to be more inclusive and create a sense of a unified school system.
Throughout the years, she has picked up more leadership skills. It’s not the kind of thing they teach in college, but more the kind of thing you pick up just because you are on the job and you want to do a good job. They are skills such as communicating with people, getting people the information so they can buy in on what is proposed.
Throughout the years there have been several things Meyer said she would number among the successes of the board. Key among them is the building of the new high school. But there are a number of others.
“The technology initiative we brought to the district. Now it’s embedded into the curriculum,” she said. “It’s just amazing to watch the way kids use technology – it’s more than a device.”
Technology started at the high school and now it’s almost to the primary grades. The goal was to make the technology accessible and usable by everyone, she explained, not just some grade levels or some special group of students. It levels the playing field for everyone.
She acknowledges despite best efforts, there are and always will be some drawbacks to technology, but she said she feels the benefits of the technology far outweigh the drawbacks.
“I haven’t seen it, but you could ask the director of technology,” she said. “I just see kids using the technology in all kinds of ways, even for extra-curricular activities. And I know they miss them when they turn them in for the summer.”
One other thing Meyer said she feels is especially important is the hiring of the superintendent. She was involved in hiring at least three, and she said it’s especially important to hire people of good character and leadership skills.
“They don’t stick around,” Meyer said. “And that really is the only person the board hires. If you hire a solid superintendent, that’s a big deal. Really good leaders are hard to come by.”
After 13 years, Meyer muses over things accomplished and things to do and the way things will change and progress.
“I hope they invite me back for the opening of the new high school,” she said. “That would be nice.”
She said she is curious about how programming will change in the new high school. With technology and building changes, there should be other changes as well. With new spaces, one should probably expect different ways of using the spaces, she mused.
What kind of a leader does she think she has been?
“I’ve tried to be authentic with people. I’ve tried to give the board the information they needed to make decisions and to be transparent,” Meyer said. “I’ve tried to be a consensus builder, but most of all, be honest.”
What the future holds has yet to be determined. She and her husband are moving to the south side of St. Cloud in part to be nearer her parents. There may be other moves. Will she get involved in schools and the city politics of St. Cloud? At first, she said no.
“No, I think I’m going to wait and see where we land in getting a lake home next summer – but you never know,” Meyer said.
Truer words were never spoken: “You never know.”
