Kramer tapped to lead GCSD No. 1

Andrew D. Brosig
Posted 4/10/19

GOSHEN COUNTY – There was consensus last week at the end of a visit by the new Goshen County School District superintendent and his family.

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Kramer tapped to lead GCSD No. 1

Posted

GOSHEN COUNTY – There was consensus last week at the end of a visit by the new Goshen County School District superintendent and his family.

“We were all in agreement,” said Ryan Kramer via telephone Monday from Hawarden in northwest Iowa.  “We could definitely see ourselves in Goshen County. The kids visited the schools, felt such a part of the community already.”

Kramer and his family – his wife, Stacy, and his children Jake, 14, Anneka, 12, and Drew, 10 – trekked from northwest Iowa to eastern Wyoming last week so the family could get the lay of the land and make sure the region would be a good fit. He said Monday they already felt like Goshen County was home.

GCSD No. 1 Board of Trustees chair Katherine Patrick announced via email last week the board had decided and had offered the job to one of the finalists. She confirmed, also via email, on Monday, Kramer had accepted the position. 

Kramer was selected from a field of three finalists, which included Platte County School District No. 1 Superintendent Dennis Fischer of Wheatland and Dr. Jan Delay, superintendent of the RE-1 Valley School District in Sterling, Colo.

In another email Monday afternoon, Patrick said it was his willingness to look at different approaches to meeting the needs of the district that distinguished him above the other candidates.

“Mr. Kramer’s approach to relationship-building and establishing trust between all members of our educational community is very attractive to us,” she said. “Recent research has emphasized the importance of those attributes in boosting student achievement and educator efficacy.

“One of his strengths is that he has worked at every level of K-12 public education,” Patrick said. “Because of his experience, he is able to see all the challenges faced by the administrators in each attendance area.

During a public hearing March 28, Kramer told a group of Goshen County residents he believes in face-to-face interaction. Kramer is currently superintendent at the West Sioux Community School District in Hawarden, Iowa, a district he’s served in several capacities for 13 years.

“One of my main goals early on would be to be able to go into a classroom and (students) not say, ‘Who’s that?’’ Kramer said. 

“The sooner I can be recognized, have students know who I am, the easier the job of superintendent becomes. Understanding the challenges teachers are facing, the challenges students have – if you don’t see those for yourself, nothing matches what first-hand knowledge means.”

Kramer said there wasn’t one single thing he could point to which tipped the scales in favor of accepting the GCSD board’s offer. But, the welcoming attitude of the people they met in the school district and the community at large made it perhaps not a simple conclusion, but a foregone one.

“When my family came out and when we were meeting different board members, going around and talking to staff, it was how welcoming and inviting everyone I met was,” Kramer said. “It seemed like home. It honestly did.

“For me, looking through my children’s eyes, how they perceive things,” he said. “That’s such a driving force for me – my family’s happiness and what I can do for them.”

Kramer said they’re planning a few more trips to eastern Wyoming in the two months and a few days before he’s scheduled to start, to look at homes and all the other details which go along with a move. But he said he’s already been thinking about first goals for himself and for the Goshen County schools.

“My primary focus will be to develop a strategic plan for the district, centered around what we can do as a community to generate how a Goshen County student should look upon graduation,” Kramer said. “My hope is that will guide us in the decisions that are forthcoming, in planning for the future.”