It happened at the last Minnesota Organization of Bloggers meeting at Keegan's. It happens at the Capitol and during political conventions. It happens regularly at church. And it happened at Wednesday's crisply-run board meeting of Veritas Academy, a college preparatory, charter high school opening this fall in the Plymouth-Wayzata area.
I have been researching education reform in Minnesota since the end of 1999, and I could learn a lot from the smart guys and gals at the front of the room at the fledgling Veritas Academy. The parents, board members, and consultants have the experience, vision, moxie, and heart to create something new and exciting for the future student body at Veritas.
Take Mark Keller for example, who was formally voted Director of the school at the meeting. Keller is a baby boomer who looks like he could be Sam Elliott's brother. He is a second-generation educator, fifteen-year Stillwater teacher (both the high school and the prison, very interesting story), worked a summer on the Mississippi River (attention Captain Fishsticks), and his wife makes a Vietnamese soup (was it Bo Kho?) to die for. Keller has a winning personality, seemingly boundless energy, a passion for education, and an unabashed enthusiasm for Veritas Academy. With Keller at the helm, it seems that Veritas will be a place of excellence and fun.
