When Hutchinson High School students return to school this fall they will see a new face in the front office.
With the departure of principal Patrick Walsh, Hutchinson Public Schools has hired Rob Danneker — previously assistant principal of Mankato East High School — to lead staff in the evolving campus.
“I was really interested in the community support Hutchinson has shown. We are sitting in some of that right now,” Danneker said during a Monday interview at Hutchinson High School, which is in the midst of renovations funded through a $45 million bond referendum approved by local voters.
Danneker has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in education from the Saint Mary’s University in Winona. The master’s degree, he said, was pursued when he realized education was the real motivation behind his interest in psychology.
He taught for 13 years, with eight years in south St. Paul, before he received his education administration license from the University of St. Thomas and moved into that realm. This coming school year is his 18th in education.
“A resume that includes Sauk Rapids and Mankato … speaks to me as an outstate administrator,” Danneker said. “When I was thinking about this spring as a time to look for a head principal position, what I was looking for was a number of things: I was looking for a high school of a reasonable size, student population, not something as large as a mega-suburb but not so small that it is miniscule.”
Mankato East’s student population of 1,050 is comparable to Hutchinson High School.
“It made a lot of sense to me as far as transferring experience and skills,” he said.
Hutchinson High School’s TigerPath Academies program is a familiar concept to Danneker, who worked with an education model in Mankato that focused on career pathways. TigerPath Academies offers students the chance to take classes of increasing rigor that focus on the skills and possibilities of career fields in business, human services, science and health, and manufacturing and engineering. A major focus of the program is on building connections to local mentors and businesses to give students opportunities to learn off campus.
“Hutchinson High School is about four years ahead of where we are at in Mankato, going down a similar pathway model,” Danneker said. “I was on the team that started the conversation down there. … The thing Hutchinson has done a great job of is matching the school with manufacturing and business. The stakeholders in town clearly recognize the future of their businesses is based on an educated future work force.”
Since Danneker started at Hutchinson Public Schools this month, a lot of his time has been spent getting to know educators and Hutchinson community members with an interest in the high school. One of his early goals is to learn about the character and culture of the school and students.
“Every high school is different,” he said. “At the same time, the goal of any high school, I believe, is to do the best by their students. The way that works out, each high school does that a little differently based on local priorities. My goal here is to serve our students and stakeholders in the community as best I can.”
As an educator, Danneker said, a top priority is building relationships with students.
“Whenever you ask an adult about their favorite teacher growing up, everyone has a story about a teacher who connected on a personal level,” he said. “As an administrator, that’s something that I hold very dear and I want to make sure that each building I work in is prioritizing those relationship opportunities between all the stakeholders: students, parents, the community and teachers.”
He compared his role as principal to the job of a coach. Danneker has coached for various sports, and his favorite aspect was the organizational component of putting together a strong team.
“That’s one thing I’ve tried to carry into my work as an administrator,” he said. “My job is to put together the best team possible and make sure they are the best equipped and best trained, to allow the best players to do what they do the best. That’s how I look at my job as an administrator in general.”
