Q&A: Meet Duluth's new school superintendent pick

DULUTH – John Magas stood in a hotel looking at the city's skyline and the Great Lake, a familiar presence to a man raised on the shores of Superior some 200 miles away.

"Duluth feels like a larger, somewhat more diverse, version of my hometown," said the Shelter Bay, Mich., native who was selected Wednesday as the new superintendent of Duluth public schools, pending contract negotiations.

"I had not the easiest upbringing myself, and I think that education, for me — I was lucky because it turned out being kind of the great equalizer," Magas said over the phone Thursday morning. "And I think that because education helped me to get to the point that I've been able to get to, I feel that it's my responsibility to help create better systems that support every kid to get to their greatest potential."

The 50-year-old, who is married with two sons and a stepson, is slated to take over the Duluth school district's top administrative post on July 1. He comes to Minnesota from Green Bay, where he's worked as an associate superintendent for four years in a district with more than 20,000 students.

But Magas' love of teaching started when he was in his 20s and he hopped on a bus to Mexico, where he helped adults learn English for two years. "That really made it clear to me that this was what I wanted to do with my life," he said.

From there, he moved to Washington state, where he taught workplace literacy classes in a beef slaughter plant and spent seven years as a teacher and assistant principal at a high school on the Yakama Indian Reservation. Then he headed to Wisconsin, serving as a middle school principal and director of secondary education for two other districts before coming to Green Bay.

That was where Magas was preparing to return Thursday morning, less than 24 hours after a whirlwind day of interviewing with the board and fielding questions from Duluth parents, teachers and other community members. He's looking forward to coming back, but for now his attention is on his current district, where teachers are planning to instruct thousands of students remotely in the midst of an unprecedented public health crisis.

The Star Tribune discussed Magas' experiences, hopes and goals for his future role. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

A: My knowledge of curriculum and instruction, and how to improve systems to meet the needs of all kids. My ability to create strategic plans that are simple yet very effective for closing opportunity gaps. My deep interest and passion for really addressing culturally and linguistically responsive needs for students and families, as well as a pretty significant understanding of behavioral and mental health needs.

A: Working with a great team to produce a more deeply focused strategic plan and create changes that took us, as a district, from meeting few standards to deeply meeting standards. We closed a lot of achievement gaps and also put into place systems at particularly the elementary level that are resulting in much greater achievement for students in math and reading.

A: Working with a particular middle school that had some real challenges and had some deep changes. Hiring a fantastic turnaround principal who is now changing the culture and trajectory of that school.

A: It's important for me to really listen and assess what I'm hearing and seeing and learning. Of course, they want to work on closing achievement gaps. And they also are thinking about what are their needs related to finance and boundaries, as well as how they can create a more focused strategic plan that's going to lead the district into the future by closing opportunity gaps for students.

A: In Green Bay, we've been spending a lot of time going more deeply into our data and going more deeply into that root-cause analysis — trying to diagnose and being a lot more precise in determining what is the root cause to a particular problem. A lot of times, in education and other industries, we end up really trying to come up with a quick and effective solution, and sometimes those solutions are just treating the symptoms of the problem. Or they can miss addressing it altogether, if we're not careful.

A: I know that addressing boundary changes can be a very difficult and delicate area to lead. What I'm hearing from the board, and what I'm hearing from the community, is that they are looking for and will appreciate the opportunity for a great number of stakeholders to take part in that conversation. That has been attempted through other means, but there still seems to be a sense of a need for even more input and greater transparency to the process.

... We're doing similar work in Green Bay right now. Like in Duluth, it isn't occurring without concern and controversy to an extent. Any time there's a boundary change, you're not likely to make everybody happy. But you can also look at how can you take in all those perspectives and make the best choice, even though it might be a hard choice, in the interest of serving all of our students.