The Crookston Public School District recently hired a new Middle School Principal. Lisa Conzemius has already been busy settling into her new role and is excited to embark on this new opportunity. Conzemius’ excitement for the job is evident as she shared about her family and previous educational positions. “I was born and raised in Breckenridge, MN, where I graduated from. I went to college at Concordia, so I’ve always kind of been in Minnesota and in the area. My first teaching job was in Pine Island, MN, which is down by Rochester.” From Pine Island, Conzemius went to Huron, ND, for about three years, where she picked up her Master’s, but wanted to come back to Minnesota and was hired in Detroit Lakes, where she spent 29 years.
Teaching is her life, Conzemius says. “I am a very serious teacher and educator. I love teaching. I also do a lot of teacher training. I’ve been doing that for almost 30 years now, so I picked that up on the side.”
Although she loved teaching so much she felt like she was being called to try something news. “I had lots of friends who said I should go into administration because you are so good at organizing, and you are detailed and you have teaching ideas and I went, I love teaching. So I just kept teaching. Then suddenly, I finally decided that I wasn’t going to grow any more as a teacher so I really needed to do something different.”
Conzemius went back to school to pick up her Administration Degree. “I’ve spent the last two years in Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley, it’s called CGB. It’s a small rural school district,” says Conzemius. “I like rural Minnesota, which is why Crookston was so appealing to me. Conzemius spent the last two years as the 6th – 12th grade Principal at CGB. She enjoyed her role at CGB, but things were changing for that school district. “They passed a referendum and now they are becoming a K-12 building, and they are probably not going to have two principals, so they kindly said maybe I should be looking. So, I was looking for jobs, and Crookston is really appealing to me. My daughter is officially a Junior at UND, but she will probably graduate this year. She is running track for them and in psychology, so now I am half an hour away from her.”
Conzemius is married and has a home in Detroit Lakes where her husband resides full-time. “He is living in Detroit Lakes, and we technically own our house. We are still married, and we have been married for 28 years. We just became a long-distance relationship now,” says Conzemius. “We have purposeful dates on the weekends but I am pretty much an educator through and through and all my life I really believe in what’s best for kids, so I’m excited to be here, anxious to make a difference in this community and help kids have a better experience.”
Conzemius is anxious to talk to all of her teachers and get feedback on what has been working for the Middle School and what has not. “I like to ask people, what should we stop doing, what should we start doing, and what should we continue doing. I am in the process of getting that survey out to my staff,” says Conzemius. “Eventually, I will send it out to the community, like to people who have students in the building, and just get feedback so we know where we want to go. I don’t exactly know Crookston other than what I am hearing so far.”
One goal Conzemius has for the start of the school year is helping people be better teachers, so kids get better learning experiences. “I’m going to really work on culture and staff relationships and culture and student relationships,” says Conzemius. “If someone doesn’t have a relationship with you, they don’t want to learn from you. They couldn’t give a rip about you. Same thing for me, if I don’t have a relationship with staff members, they won’t want to work with me. The culture needs to be fun, and I am always a glass-half-full person. I’m like Whoooo, let’s go. That’s who I am.”
Cozemius will be at the games, at the concerts, at all the events possible as she says this is what she loves. Everyone has been really welcoming and she is ready for this new adventure. “I’ve met really good people, the teachers I’ve met have been excellent and the administrators, so far left, have been excellent. The board has been really good. People are super welcoming and I’m really excited. I think it’s going to be great.”
