Story Ms. Kelli Parpart, new principal of Park Center Senior High, grew up in the small town of Lester Prairie with her mom, dad, and two sisters. She went to a K-12 school, with 38 students in her graduating class. Ms. Parpart’s town had a population of somewhere close to 1,000. This meant that she knew everyone, and was involved in a very tight knit society. This tight knit society of everyone knowing everyone was a very “calm and safe place”. One of the benefits of small town life was the fact she could be involved in everything. The one real disadvantage is that everything was “basic”. Everything was just the standard; the football team, the basketball team, the cheerleading squad; these were a few from the small pool of things that were offered, while students living in larger cities could have so much more to choose from. After K-12 Ms. Parpart attended Moorhead State University and got her Bachelor of Science (BS) in English. After teaching in the classroom at Coon Rapids High for a few years she returned to college, to get her Masters in Education and her Specialist degree. She would then go to Minneapolis and spend a year as an assistant principal, followed by three years at Brooklyn Junior as an assistant principal. She would finally become principal at Brooklyn Junior and stay there for 5 years before transferring to Park Center for this, her sixth year as a lead principal. Ms. Parpart decided to transfer because it was the “best of both worlds”. “It is the same community”, she states. The students are the same, and yet it is on a different level, so she gets to learn new things. She loves working with the students; in fact, she says that is the best part of her day. Any time she gets to interact with students makes her day. But like most human beings she does not like the phone calls and the emails and all the paperwork. The amount of paperwork has increased from her transition between English teacher and principal.
The bulk of paperwork isn’t the only thing that changed; as a principal, Ms. Parpart sees things from a much larger perspective then as she did as an English teacher. The one thing she does miss about being an English teacher was the guaranteed interaction with the students. Especially as a head principal, her responsibilities take her away from the students. One of these responsibilities is keeping the school running and moving towards becoming better every step of the way. In 5 years she believes that our diversity will increase and be at the point where it is slowly leveling off, the new International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme and Diploma Years Programme will both be up and running; yet our staff and students will be the same, just a little bit of difference in the methods of teaching. Merging all of these programs is just one thing of many on the to-do list of Ms Parpart. From small town beginnings to big school responsibilities, Ms Parpart is slowly but surely adjusting to the ways of Park Center. With her love for the students and her constant flow of energy, she is well qualified for the job. |
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| Favorite food: | Pizza or Potatoes |
| Pets: | If she had time, a little puppy |
| Favorite Holiday: | Thanksgiving |
| Favorite Music: | Likes it all |
| Dream Car | Lamborghini |
| First thing I would do if I won the lottery | put it in the bank and live off of interest |
| Favorite TV Show: | All the reality shows |
| Favorite Book | Night, The Spirit Catches You, You All Fall Down |
| Movie | Glory, Schindler’s List |
| Ideal vacation | Jamaica |
| Best type of weather: | Hot and Sunny |
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