Woman of Influence: Dr. Angela Grunewald
It’s one of last days of summer vacation, and Edmond Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Angela Grunewald is making the most of it. She’s been soaking up some sun out by the pool and joins me for our Zoom interview smiling and relaxed … though she’s about to get a lot busier. Grunewald is responsible for the third largest district in Oklahoma, with more than 26,000 pre-K through 12th grade students and more than 3,100 employees, including 1,600 teachers.
“We have more teachers than we do support employees,” she says. And then, “It bothers me that I cannot call all of them by name or recognize every one of them. I struggle with that.” On its surface, that statement feels like something a classic Type-A overachiever might say. But as the conversation continues, it becomes clear that it’s Grunewald’s extraordinary appreciation and love for teachers that drives her wish for superhero-level memory skills.
“I think teaching is one of the most rewarding and important careers out there. So I do anything I can do to help our teachers. That is what I love about my job: providing for and supporting teachers, and that in turn makes our school district so strong,” she says.
Grunewald herself spent 14 years teaching. Her tenure at the chalkboard saw her teaching every grade level from second to eighth, at districts across the state including Edmond’s Charles Haskell, Mustang and Piedmont. “I grew up in Woodward and then went to Northwestern at Alva for college. And I met my late husband there. He was a coach.” She used to tell friends and family that he was going to win state championships and she was going to teach kids to read. After a few years, her late husband decided to move into administration. “So I kind of followed him all around the state, that’s why I’ve had multiple different jobs,” Grunewald explains.
Her own metamorphosis from teacher to administrator was less of a strategic career plan and more of a natural progression. “I really, truly, only just wanted to be a teacher. And then I found myself becoming more of a mentor. I stepped into that principal role to be more of a mentor and to help teachers,” she says. While she’s always been open to the next thing, she’s also always been perfectly happy right where she is.
Fortunately, her move into administration held pleasant surprises for her. “I think what was the most gratifying [thing] that I had not done before was helping parents. As a teacher, you have that small group of parents that you really bond with, because you’ve got their child for the whole day. But as a principal, I found that there were parents in my office that just didn’t know what to do; they really were against a wall. And I loved being able to help those parents find answers for their problems and be even better parents.”
As summer wanes, Grunewald, now happily remarried, is summoning her fortitude in anticipation of the coming hurly-burly. From August to May, the couple attends Edmond Schools events four evenings a week, on top of her intense daily schedule. “I will say during the school year, work is a lot. Every night, except for Wednesday night, we attend an event. Either a football or basketball game, a volleyball game, a play or an orchestra event, you name it,” she says. Her husband is great about it — he knew when she took the job three years ago that it would become central to their lives.
“He loves going along with me. He’s retired, so it’s perfect. He has a woodworking business on the side that keeps him occupied, and other than that, he is just a great supporter,” she says. He chooses much of what they attend, having become a full-throttle Edmond Schools sports fan. “He loves to pick. If there are three home basketball games, he will say, ‘Well, I want to go watch this person play. This is going to be the best game of the night. We need to go to this game.’ And that’s what we do, pretty much, during the week with the agreement that on Saturdays and Sundays I really try my hardest not to work … and we have found that that works just really well for us.”
Her day-to-day is carefully planned to ensure she’s in the schools as much as possible. “I kind of have a weekly routine. I am out at school sites almost every Tuesday morning, and I try to get a board member to go with me if I can. I keep track … if I go to about four schools every Tuesday morning, by the end of each nine weeks I will have made it to all of them. Then on Thursdays, I schedule time with a teacher.”
She’s careful to work through the principals and schedule them way ahead of time, because she understands that a visit from the superintendent might be stressful. “I love to come and spend an hour in the classroom. And that way I really get to see instruction; I get to watch students as they’re learning. I get to see behavior, because we know that’s one of the biggest concerns that teachers are having right now.”
Behavioral issues have increased in schools nationwide. Grunewald and her team are vigilant, training constantly to learn how to deal with the full range of issues facing schools, including the horrifying reality of school shootings. She’s serious about prevention. “It’s about being observant and watching what you see, what you hear, what’s on social media. We know that when you see a threat, even if it seems like just someone posting something, you have to take every one of those seriously. You can’t say, ‘Oh, that’s just some kids saying something.’”
Grunewald relies on the entire community to help. “What we’ve been the most impressed with is how vigilant our students are. They know the world that we live in. They have been so good at reporting what they see or what they’ve heard on social media, or what they heard a friend say. That preventative measure has kept us safe many times,” she says. She is grateful, too, for the strong partnership between Edmond Public Schools and the Edmond Police Department. “No matter what time of the night, [if] it’s two o’clock in the morning, if we pick up on a threat they will immediately go to a house and check to see if this is a viable threat.”
Another tactic known to combat school violence is one of her district’s core values: a sense of belonging. “We know for students to feel like they belong, they have to have connections. And we also know the more that a student is connected, the more successful they will be with their grades and their graduation rate as well.” That’s where the myriad of student organizations and clubs fit into the picture. It’s an impressive array: chess, anime, sports, bass angling, book club, DECA, knitting, robotics, psychology, badminton and MANY more. Esports began as a club and is now a competitive team. “Any student, if they can find a sponsor, can start a club that they have an interest in, and then they can meet in our buildings and participate. It’s about building those connections and finding other students that like to do the same thing that you’d like to do.”
Connection and belonging are crucial for anyone’s happiness and satisfaction, including her own. “I always say be happy where you are and make the best of where you are and things will open up for you … not that you shouldn’t have goals, but there’s a lot to say about just being happy where you are. And I have found that that has worked really well for me.”