Candidate Profile: Creativity, Collaboration Important to Allen Gerber

Editor's Note: This article is first in a series of profiles on the candidates campaigning in the local school board election this fall. Check back at Patch this week for coverage of each candidate.  

For much of his life, Allen Gerber has worked with the Peace Corps, managing overseas programs and traveling aboard.

His international experiences have instilled in Gerber one lesson: Local students are no longer competing on a local or even regional level for the best jobs and educations; they’re competing on a worldwide scale.

It’s a philosophy that Gerber, a 67-year-old semi-retiree, wants to take to the Inver Grove Heights School Board. Gerber is one of seven candidates running for four open seats this fall on the board. He and the other newcomers and incumbents will square off on Election Day on Nov. 8.

Gerber says his ability to listen and work collaboratively—and his familiarity with the mechanics of school districts—set him apart as a board candidate. For years, Gerber served as the president for the Association of Cooperative Educators, which works across international borders to unite educators and promote innovation and professionalism in education. He also served as the executive director of the Southeast Service Cooperative, which provides professional development to teachers in Minnesota.

Core skills, like reading, writing and mathematics, are important for today’s students, Gerber said. But equally important are creative and collaborative learning and arts-related courses like band, choir and extra-curricular activities.

Focusing on strengthening those programs, Gerber said, could improve the district’s competitive standing and better prepare local students to compete on an international level.

“We have to build on that strength … and we can do that through our school systems,” Gerber said. “What is going to make us better is our creativity and our compassion.”

Professional development for district faculty is also important to Gerber, who would like to create a mentorship program for teachers in the district. Under Gerber’s plan, older, certain “best practices” teachers would help guide less-experienced teachers to bolster their skills.

Gerber describes himself as a big-picture planner, able to adhere to long-term goals without getting distracted or bogged down by other matters. His wife, Kathy, is a retired teacher who taught in the district’s Atheneum program. Both his children graduated from .

Gerber, a member of the Senate District 39 DFL group, is one of several candidates with strong political ties running for the board—a traditionally non-partisan group. But the candidate says he won’t let his political background influence his decisions if he were elected to the board.

“I think in a school election, if you bring politics in, it’s bad,” Gerber said. “Politics thrives on controversy, and that really doesn’t have a place in the schools.”