Leading by Empowering
/
Klamath County School District’s new superintendent, Glen Szymoniak, has 36 years of experience in education, starting as a third-grade teacher and rising to superintendent positions in districts in Alaska and Idaho before taking the helm at the KCSD.
Glen Szymoniak takes reins of Klamath County School District
The new superintendent of the Klamath County School District has a track record of improving standardized test scores, integrating technology into classrooms, and working with state and local leaders to maintain and secure funding.
Glen Szymoniak, 60, started work at the district office July 2, taking over for retiring district superintendent Greg Thede. He will lead the 6,450-student district, overseeing 23 schools serving seven communities. The district employs more than 1,000 people, including 800 licensed and classified staff.
His first priority is to get to know the district’s employees – principals, teachers and others. In addition to meetings, he’s been visiting schools. He’s toured Peterson Elementary School’s new fifth-sixth grade classroom building, visited with the district’s maintenance crew replacing a boiler at Merrill Elementary, and checked in with Randy Rose, principal at Shasta Elementary.
“The quality of an organization is a direct representation of the conversations we have about what’s good for kids and how we do business,” he said. “I want to empower excellent and effective teachers, making sure they’re getting the support they need.”
Szymoniak was most recently interim superintendent of the Dillingham City School District in Alaska. He was previously superintendent in Barrow, Alaska, and spent seven years as superintendent in McCall, Idaho, leading the district and its schools to five-star ratings and rankings in U.S. News & World Report and Newsweek. He spent most his career in Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, where he started as a third-grade teacher and worked his way up to assistant superintendent. There he managed a $120 million budget, 1,207 employees and 44 principals in 21 communities.
He holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Alaska in public school administration with an emphasis in strategic planning and school improvement. He also earned a Harvard Law School certification in negotiation and interest-based bargaining. His Bachelor of Science degree from Central Michigan University is in elementary education, history and physical education.
His philosophy embodies teamwork, high expectations, and empowerment of staff and students. Former coworkers describe him as a strong leader and team player, and say he uses a team method to approach complicated problems or difficult decisions.
KCSD Superintendent Glen Szymoniak talks with Randy Rose, new principal of Shasta Elementary School. Rose is repainting the school’s cafeteria, main offices and entryway.
The school board offered him the position last spring after an extensive search process. He accepted a three-year contract with the Klamath County School District because of the community’s investment in youth, healthy learning environments, and progressive support of education.
“I was looking for a district where I can feel successful, teachers can feel supported, and people are happy with the quality of their schools,” he said. “High school graduation is important here.”
Among his priorities will be to assist the school board in developing a new strategic plan. That planning, he said, must address the needs of the community by including representation of all stakeholders.
“What do people want to see? I want to listen to what their hopes and dreams are,” he said. “Schools are service organizations. Who are we serving and what do those people want and need for students? The conversations you have during the planning process are invaluable.”
Szymoniak believes school districts need to think about the future of communities and their youth.
“It’s not just about getting kids ready for college. It’s a lot of other things,” he says. “How do you provide opportunity for everybody? Strategic planning is a really good activity for listening and preparing kids coming out of the education system.”
Leading the way: Test scores and technology
Former co-workers and board members praised Szymoniak’s leadership and vision, and his ability to connect with students.
“I am in the business of making people’s dreams come true, and I do it with the attitude of setting everyone up for success.’”
“Glen’s ability to unite diverse groups of people helped our district excel,” an elementary educator in the McCall-Donnelly School District in McCall, Idaho, wrote in a recommendation letter to the Klamath County School Board. “His focus brought our entire district together. Glen moved McCall-Donnelly forward and our students’ scores and success are proof.”
As a new superintendent in Idaho, Szymoniak was part of a team at Boise State University’s Center for School Improvement and Policy Studies that implemented and rolled out Common Core standards. He implemented those standards in his district by training his top teachers and supporting collaboration across the school district’s curriculum.
The hard work paid off.
From 2007 to 2013, the district increased standardized test scores by 10.1 percent in reading, 15.8 percent in science, 11.7 percent in language, and 6.3 percent in math. In reading, 93 percent of 10th graders and 100 percent of fifth graders were considered proficient or advanced. The story was similar in math: 90 percent of fifth graders and 88 percent of 10th graders were proficient or advanced.
“My leadership style is that of a ‘team leader’ or ‘conductor’ like in an orchestra,” he says “… I have found that teams work best when they are open to new ideas, value everyone’s input and are dedicated to accomplishing common goals. It is important to me to assess individual strengths and recognize contributions, promote personal growth and encourage people to pursue their passions”
Szymoniak also promoted student participation and leadership in state and local issues.
With his support, McCall-Donnelly high school students were instrumental in writing and securing grant funding that provided iPads for students. The grant’s plan included creation of a student-led iClub that instructed teachers how to utilize iPads in their classrooms.
When the Idaho Legislature was considering whether to continue technology grant funding, iClub members testified in Senate and House Education committee hearings, and the grant was approved for a second year.
From Michigan to Kuwait to Alaska
Szymoniak grew up in northern Michigan near the resort area of Black Lake, and spent his leisure time hunting, fishing, golfing, and skiing.
After high school graduation, he planned to study air conditioning and refrigeration at Lansing Community College in Lansing, Mich. But after checking out the city-based college, he decided it wasn’t for him. That fall, he returned to his hometown, and his former track coach suggested he consider teaching.
He graduated in 1979 when unemployment rates in Michigan were the highest in the nation. His first job was teaching third and fourth grades at an international school in Kuwait during the Iran Hostage Crisis. “It got heated when Iran came into Kuwait and started bombing,” he says. “We had emergency tickets ready in case we had to leave.”
Fishing for village elders
He spent two years in Kuwait before returning to Michigan, where the economy was still depressed. Most of the jobs were in Texas and Alaska, so he took a job teaching high school science, math, photography and shop classes at a village on the northern tip of Nunivak Island in Alaska.
In his shop classes, he taught students how to build freight sleds to pull behind snow machines. The students also helped build a boat, which he used to teach commercial fishing. Students would catch salmon and give the fish to the village elders. From there, Szymoniak took a job with Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, where he spent three years teaching third grade in Seward. He then was hired by the district as principal/teacher for a 30-student school in the town of Moose Pass.
Summer job cleaning oil spill
He brought his boat with him to Seward on the Kenai Peninsula. In spring 1989, an oil tanker owned by Exxon Shipping Co. spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound. That summer, Szymoniak used his boat and skills to help with the cleanup, working as foreman of a crew and fleet of boats that captured oil along the coast of Kenai Fjord National Park. The following winter, he got his captain license and bought a charter boat, spending his summers taking tourists and others fishing for salmon and halibut.
His next job with the Kenai Peninsula school district was as principal for an elementary school and later a middle school in Homer, where he helped create an emergency response system for earthquakes and other natural disasters. He spent six years there before being promoted to assistant superintendent of the Kenai district.
Building schools in Idaho and polar bears on the North Slope
He worked as superintendent in the McCall, Idaho district from 2008 to 2015. When he arrived, the district had just passed a bond to build a new elementary school and high school and remodel a second elementary school. He managed the construction during his tenure, refinancing $39 million in bonds and ultimately saving the district $1 million.
From Idaho, he returned to Alaska, working as superintendent on the North Slope, a district the size of the state of Oregon. In Kaktovik, one of the villages, he recalls closing school for two days because polar bears were in town and the school bus driver was home sick. Because of the bears, students were not allowed to walk to school.
“The village had polar bear patrol that shot bean bags at the bears,” he says. “We didn’t want to kill them.”
After two years in the Arctic, Szymoniak decided to seek a warmer, less severe climate. The Alaska school board association asked him to work a one-year temporary assignment as superintendent in Dillingham, Alaska. From there, he was hired as superintendent by the Klamath County School District.
Getting to know the Basin
Szymoniak and his wife, Erin, are getting to know the Klamath Basin. They recently hiked the Mountain Lakes Trail between Lake of the Woods and Fish Lake, and Szymoniak is looking forward to elk hunting this fall.
He has three grown sons – the oldest is an economist for the state of Alaska, the middle son works in the oil industry in Alaska, and youngest is an accountant for Alaska’s Arctic Slope Regional Association. Erin has three children as well. The youngest will be a senior in high school this fall.
Szymoniak says he and Erin are looking forward to getting to know their new community. “I’m not a city guy. This is the kind of lifestyle I like to live,” he says. “We’re invested here.”
Press release provided from Marcia Schlottman, Public Relations, Klamath County School District.