Kate Flynn, principal at Madison Elementary School, is retiring after 34 years in education, six of those with St. Cloud Area School District, but she reflects that an educational career wasn’t what she intended. She is a singer and loves music, so she always wanted to be a performer.
“I thought for sure my career was going to be in music,” explains Flynn. “I was a kid that struggled in learning. School was hard for me. It didn’t come easy . . . so teaching wasn’t on my radar.”
One of her music major requirements at the College of St. Benedict (CSB) was to write and present a music lesson to a classroom of students. She delivered her presentation in front of first graders.
“I really wasn’t planning on using it,” says Flynn. “I wasn’t going to be a music teacher. [But] It hooked me right there. I saw those kids and I watched their light bulb go on. When you’re around children with that kind of innocence, enthusiasm and excitement, I just fell in love.”
She called her parents to break the news she’d decided to become a teacher. (In her immediate family, you either went into law or medicine.) But they were thrilled! Flynn has many extended family members in education, so they were very supportive.
She quickly scrambled to change her major and was able to complete her degree in teaching from CSB. During the 1980s, art classes were being cut from education, so to be safe, she got her license in general elementary education instead of music.
She was first hired in St. Paul School District at Monroe Elementary. She taught in a fifth and sixth grade split classroom. Flynn became an intermediate teacher afterward.
“I just think you have those great mentors along the way,” shares Flynn, “those great colleagues, teacher mentors and principals that see something in you.”
Flynn received a lot of encouragement from those around her to take her educational experience to the next level.
“Then somehow your path just opens up,” says Flynn. “I went into teaching really to pretty much have the opportunity to profoundly impact the lives of children. I’m always looking for meaning and purpose. I grew up with great humanitarian parents who always told me you get more when you give more. No other career can give you that – the impact of shaping the world.”
Flynn remembers a woman saying once, “the destiny of a nation is shaped in her classroom.” And it rings true for Flynn still today.
Flynn became a principal because she wanted to impact the education system. She knew she could impact more students as a leader than she could in a single classroom. She graduated with a Master’s degree in curriculum design from St. Mary’s University and then earned her administrative license through St. Cloud State University.
Benjamin E. Mays School in St. Paul was her first principal assignment, and she was there for three years. She then moved to Mississippi Creative Arts School. The school district was turning Mississippi Elementary School into a creative arts magnet, and Flynn fit the bill with her background in music and performance. She was there for three years when she received the call from Superintendent Willie Jett looking for a principal in St. Cloud Area School District.
“I said no,” laughs Flynn. She told him, “I’m really committed to St. Paul.”
Yet things were changing in the St. Paul School District and Flynn began to rethink a move.
“You always follow good leadership,” says Flynn. “I heard good things about Willie. I believed in what Willie was doing. I do have sisters up here [in St. Cloud]. Willie called again and I said, ‘Maybe.’ He knew ‘maybe’ was a good sign.”
Flynn started to believe three is a sacred number. She interviewed and was hired in St. Cloud Area School District where she became the principal at Talahi Community School. Then when the principal at Madison Elementary School retired three years later, Flynn shifted there.
Now, another three years later, Flynn is retiring. Not having her own children, she feels lucky to have raised thousands of children over the years. She is also looking forward to her future.
“It’s such a weird time right now with COVID,” says Flynn. “I want to take on this new challenge. I want to take on the world of education. But so many of those opportunities aren’t happening yet.”
Flynn really wants to continue in education because that is where her passion is. She’d like to share some of her wisdom and continue to evolve herself.
“It [retirement] will be very strange,” worries Flynn. “For 34 years, you’ve opened a classroom or opened a building. It will just be strange to not spend time thinking, planning, creating and innovating – what opening a building really looks like. This will be the first summer I’ve really had off.”
Family and friends recommend that she find someplace to go to relax whether it’s nature or the beach during the first week of school, so that she isn’t going to miss watching school re-open. Those plans are on hold until COVID is over. However, she is anxious to see what her next magical three years will bring.
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