By Nancy Gongora, Reporter
For the last 15 years Maggie Mintken has been a part of the Grand Island Public Schools District and for the last eight years she has served as an assistant principal at Senior High.
But while she is leaving the school, she is not leaving the district as she will be the new principal at West Lawn Elementary.
Although she is excited about her new job, Mintken will miss a lot of this about being at Senior High.
“I will definitely miss the energy of high school students and staff,” she said. “It is magical to watch the transformation of a student from ninth grade to their graduation ceremony. High School is a very robust learning experience that spans from academics to extracurricular activities/clubs.”
Mintken added that she believes that the academic content of high school helps students gain a “deeper understanding of the world and all the possibilities out there.”
She said she will also miss the in-depth conversations she had with students and staff members on the importance of an education.
“I will miss helping students learn from their mistakes. We all make mistakes…we just need to own our mistake, fix it, and commit to learning from it. I will miss walking alongside students as they discover who they are, where they want to go, and how they will make their goals a reality.”
Mintken said that she is looking forward meeting the students and staff along with joining the family of the West Lawn Mustang.
“A strong educational foundation is important to each and every one of us and I am excited to be a part of that for the students,” she said.
Mintken said that her goal for her new position is to have all students and staff be part of making the culture at the school “tremendous and one where “we have common shared values that we commit to, a mission of learning that excites us, and the teamwork to make it happen.”
Mintken began at GISH as a Special Education Supervisor and earned her Bachelor of Science in Education, K-12 Special Education, from Chadron State College along with a Master of Science K-12 Educational Leadership. She earned her doctoral degree in Interdisciplinary Leadership from Creighton University.
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