By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph School Superintendent Gabe Edgar is busy, very busy, as he takes over his duties officially.
Edgar, who began officially on the 1st, says the first order of business is to get on top of his priorities.
“I feel like in the St. Joseph School District we have a dart board on the wall and we have about 140 darts in that dart board and we need to back off 135 of those and prioritize,” Edgar tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
Communication is the top priority, both internal and external.
Edgar first plans to work on internal communication, getting his administration’s message across to district teachers and staff. Then, he will work on communicating with the public.
“We want the community to understand we can make a difference and we can make the school district better, but we can’t do it by ourselves,” Edgar says.
Edgar has been with the St. Joseph School District for four years, serving as the Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations.
Edgar says communication has to improve, both with district employees and with the community.
“I think it’s all about one thing. It’s still about relationships,” Edgar says. “That’s one thing my leadership style is built around, it’s building relationships. I’ve done that for four years. I plan on continuing to do that. I think it’s important if you want the community to support the school district you have to build relationships with the community.”
The St. Joseph School District has been busy filling open positions. It had 52 teaching positions open at the end of the last school year. Edgar says most of those positions have been filled.
“I do think that we’re going to be able to fill all of our elementary positions,” according to Edgar. “We’re going to be able to fill all of our middle school, high school positions; outside of special education. We still have some concerns there in the area of special education.”
Edgar says it has become difficult for all school districts to find qualified special education teachers and the paraprofessionals who assist them. The district also is seeking to fill 25 staff positions that remain open.
Now officially the superintendent, Edgar is excited about the possibilities before him.
“There’s a lot of opportunity here in St. Joseph,” Edgar says. “There’s a lot of opportunity not only within the school district, but there’s a lot of opportunity within the community itself. I just hope people give us a chance. We’re going to do our job to make a difference every single day.”
Edgar succeeds Doug Van Zyl who left for a similar position in his home state of Minnesota. Edgar and Van Zyl came to the St. Joseph School District at the same time four years ago.