West St. Paul schools' new leader gets started

Nancy Allen-Mastro has taken over as the new superintendent of the West St. Paul School District, which has an enrollment of about 4,500 students.

Allen-Mastro has launched a 100-day transition plan to get familiar with the district, its challenges and its students. Among the goals she has for herself is meeting every teacher in the district so she becomes a familiar sight to them.

Allen-Mastro was hired away from the Bloomington School District, where she was an assistant superintendent and helped reorganize that district's elementary schools.

A few days prior to the start of school, she sat down and answered a few questions:

Q First of all, how are things going for you?

A It's been going well. No complaints from me.

Q Is there something you're focusing on in your first 100 days in office?

Q What are your first impressions as far as things to look at and things to do?

A My first impressions are very positive. It's a very energetic community with broad support for its schools. And certainly a very enthusiastic and innovative staff.

Q Is there a particular thing you want to focus on in the first month of school?

A I don't know if there is a single thing that first month other than setting in motion a group of people to work on different things ... so we are clear on what are our goals for the year and what are the action steps for those goals ... to make sure we're working smartly.

Q What do you think are some of the bigger challenges facing the district?

Q One of the ways your district is doing that is through magnet schools?

A I think we have great magnet programs, and they really are meeting a learning interest of students. Our goal is for them to be more engaged.

Q Any plans to expand the magnet program?

A Not at this time. We are still in just the third year of the federal grants that the district has [for the magnet programs]. We're still doing a heavy amount of professional development and curriculum development that are part and parcel of those magnet programs.

Q Is there a particular goal or theme for the school year that you have in mind?

Q A lot of districts are going to the use of the iPad as a primary learning tool. Are you expanding your offerings?

A I don't think we're expanding that. We have quite a few of the iPads in the program.

Q The district has been trying to remake itself the last couple of years. Do you have a sense of how you will be pushing that this year?

A Some of the things that the school board has identified as priorities would be the technology integration or the whole notion of online learning or hybrid learning or blended learning, as it's sometimes called. Another priority is looking for more ways for students to earn degrees or certificates at the college level while they are still in high school.

Q In general, how would you describe your district's finances?

Q When the kids arrive at schools, will they see anything different?

A I don't think so, other than they know they have a new superintendent.

Q Any last thoughts before the school year starts?

A I think it would be very presumptive of me to come in and say we need to do this, we need to do this, we need to do this. That is not my style. I am joining them. I am looking for a way to take them to the next level ... I'm not going to come in and change the world.