by Jim Boyle
Editor
Jane Bunting closed out her three-year run as chairwoman of the Elk River Area School Board on Jan. 4 with a tear in her eye and a crack in her voice.
The second-term member of the School Board decided on her own not to seek the post from her colleagues, having decided such a leadership position had to take a backseat to her and her husband Jay Bunting’s burgeoning business.
Jane Bunting (above) did not seek a fourth year as chairwoman of the Elk River Area School Board.
Wayzata Bay Spice Co. grew like crazy in the previous fiscal year, and it is already on target to surpass sales this fiscal year. Plus, there’s a new machine to fetch in China and a new product line that will package spices in packets rather than bottles for certain applications.
“That’s great news, but that also means you have to invest time and capital and a lot of senior management decisions,” Bunting said. “At some point, I had to decide to shift some of my attention elsewhere.”
Bunting, of Rogers, nominated Holly Thompson for the position of chairwoman at a Jan. 4 organizational meeting, and fellow School Board members followed her suggestion with a unanimous vote. The Zimmerman woman presided over her first televised meeting as School Board chairwoman on Jan. 11.
Thompson was first elected to the School Board in 2008. She has three kids attending school in Zimmerman, and she has been very active in the schools.
“Truly, I was hoping that Jane would continue as board chair,” Thompson said. “Her leadership has served the board well. I was willing to fulfill the role if she chose not to continue.”
One of the reasons she was willing is she believes the board is headed in the right direction with its focus on student achievement, World’s Best Workforce legislation and board governance.
“If it wasn’t headed in the right direction, I don’t know that I would want the position,” Thompson said. “Jane did such a good job. I just want to make sure we don’t miss a beat.”
As the former vice chair, Thompson has stepped in when Bunting has been gone. But Bunting’s decision to nominate her was about more than that.
“I absolutely feel the board supports her,” Bunting said. “When she gets into the numbers, you listen.”
Bunting also guaranteed that Thompson takes the job very seriously and is talking to constituents “constantly.”
Thompson is in the last year of her second four-year term, and Shane Steinbrecher, of Zimmerman, has become the new vice chair. Tony Walter, of Elk River, remains secretary and treasurer. Unlike years past, the town of residence wasn’t much of a consideration for board members when selecting officers.
On deck this year is getting through the process of changing boundary lines for Twin Lakes Elementary School, which were rolled out publicly for the first time on Jan. 11 and will be the topic of a special Jan. 26 public hearing.
Bunting says another big issue is policy governance that the School Board has been working on and continues to work with a consultant on.
“We need to be sure we are going to be the high-performing board that we want to be,” Bunting said
And the School Board needs to be ready for anything else that comes up, Bunting said, looking forward to it in her scaled-back position.
“The chair position is an incredible position,” Bunting said. “It doesn’t look like you’re doing much. You’re running meetings. The funny thing is the investment of time in between meetings is huge. And the other thing is you can’t plan for all of it. When things fire off, you have to be ready to grab and take hold.”
That’s the part of the job of a school board member that Buntings needs to let go of in 2016.
Her work as the chairwoman of the School Board took the front seat several times last year, when the former teacher, guidance counselor and businesswoman who founded the spice company 18 years felt pulled in two directions. She missed business trips to Seattle, Hawaii and China, where they met with manufacturers of the machine they now intend to buy.
Bunting expressed thankfulness and appreciation to the board for the personal and professional growth she experienced as the chairwoman.
She’s most proud of bringing all-day, every-day kindergarten to 5-year-old learners a year before the state did.
“The bottom line, it was meaningful to the kids, and it ties back to the fact that we want all the kids to be able to read by third grade,” she said. “Having been an English teacher in a prior life, that was really meaningful to me.”
Bunting is also proud of the strides the district made to unleash technology and the move to changes in board governance. She said districts are all over the map on where they are with technology in the classroom, but it became clear to her and other board members that Elk River was behind when they attended a national convention a few years back.
“We took the steps necessary to learn from those who had made giant strides,” Bunting said. “I can absolutely say under my leadership we continued to push the limits. Today, I feel like our kids are in a competitive realm and no longer behind. That’s huge. Not all boards were willing to take those risks.”
Bunting said the School Board began taking a hard look at governance during the last year, and it hasn’t entirely played out yet.
“The bottom line is it’s helping the board operate at a higher level of decision-making,” she said. “We have seen what happens in terms of not getting done what we need to when we’re playing at a lower end.
“We need to press the high points. The key here for us going forward, the new board governance will help us tie our work as a board back to the World’s Best Workforce.”
Bunting said one of the more trying times for her as board chair was walking through the delimiter process that helped show the organization it can change and do more with less.
“We don’t have to keep adding on,” she said.
Teary-eyed Bunting reflects back on run
After getting on the board, Bunting realized as a school board member you’re making big decisions and you’re working with a big budget.
“But it’s not until you sit in that seat and realize what you do and say impacts 13,000 kids,” Bunting said. “That may sound trite to some. It isn’t trite to me.
“As a former teacher and guidance counselor. I thought I was doing a lot for kids in those roles. Not to the numbers and not to the degree that I have been able to on the board and certainly as chair of the board. I really mean that with great sincerity.”
Personally, Bunting sees a link between her childhood, her family and the legacy she is leaving. The Minneapolis native who graduated from high school in Osseo said she remembers growing up and getting high praise from her parents and grandparents for success in school.
“I loved school,” she said.
She said she heard her grandpa’s nephew had been superintendent of the school in Osseo. The school Bunting graduated from has a varsity football field named after him: Carl Tonn Field.
“I remember how important it was to me that a member of my family had an impact on kids and education,” Bunting said. “It wasn’t just my own immediate family. I realized, guess what, anyone can have an opportunity to do that. It (has a) great meaning to me when I look back and say thank you for the opportunity.”
Bunting has three years left on her current board term. She was re-elected in 2014 when she ran unopposed.
She’s keen on working with the World’s Best Workforce document as a guiding light.
“I want every graduate to go out and have a plan,” Bunting said. “I know plans change, but we have kids that are graduating that don’t have a plan and we have kids that are graduating and are going to go to college just because they’re going to go to college. That could be a waste of money.
“We need to do more to help our kids get ready for after graduation. It’s not just the diploma that’s important. It’s what happens after that.”