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Wednesday, March 21, 2007
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Gross leaving Singapore Former Brainerd superintendent accepts D.C. post Staff Writer After spending eight years as superintendent of a private American school in Singapore, former Brainerd School District Superintendent Bob Gross is heading back to the states - to a federal education post in Washington, D.C.
Gross, 64, served as Brainerd superintendent for 18 years until he accepted the position at the Singapore American School in 1999. Gross has now accepted a position as a regional educational officer - one of six officers assigned worldwide - with the Office of Overseas Schools, a division of the Department of State. He begins his new job Aug. 1.
Gross, in an e-mail interview with the Dispatch, said he will be assigned to the international schools in Western Europe. He and his wife, Judy, will live in Washington, but 12 weeks a year he will be traveling to the international schools and embassies in western Europe. The Office of Overseas Schools was established to support American families living overseas. He said his new role has nothing to do with schools on military bases, which are under the Department of Defense.
In his travels, Gross said he generally will make his first stop at an embassy or consulate to visit with American families who have children enrolled in one of the international schools. He would listen to and discuss their concerns and then go to the school and visit with the superintendent and school board. He would have no direct authority over those schools because they are all independent schools and answer only to their parent community, he said. However, he said he will have a budget available to support the schools in dealing more effectively with parents' concerns. For example, he said if parents have a concern about school security he could allocate money to upgrade security in and around the campus. Or he could allocate funds to bring in a math consultant if there are concerns about a math program at the school.
This year Gross began his 43rd year as an educator and his 26th year as a school superintendent. He spent 35 years in the public schools in Minnesota, first as a teacher, then as a principal and working his way up to superintendent. In 1987 Gross was named Brainerd Citizen of the Year.
In 2006 Gross was named the International School Superintendent of the Year. He has been serving on the board of directors for the East Asia Regional Council of Overseas Schools for the past five years.
During his tenure in Singapore, the school has grown into the largest international school in the world with 3,770 students. The school also just completed a $50 million construction project and the entire debt has been paid, said Gross.
The Grosses have a daughter, Jenny, who lives with her husband Greg in Minneapolis. They are both attorneys. Greg is with the Minneapolis city attorney's office while Jenny is with the law firm Meagher and Geer, said Gross.
Here's an excerpt of the e-mail interview with Gross:
So what's the past eight years been like for you and Judy in Singapore?
"I left Brainerd because I wanted to work in the private sector after having spent all 35 years of my professional life working in the public sector. I decided that if I'm going to work in the private sector, I may as well do it in a different part of the world. In that way I could satisfy my desire to work in the private sector and experience what it is like to live some place other than the United States. Besides, my attachment to Brainerd was just too strong that it was probably necessary for me to go to the other side of the world to keep from continually comparing my current job to the one I left in Brainerd. The past eight years have, quite understandably, been a wonderful experience because it has given us the opportunity to live and travel throughout Asia. Unless one lives in Asia, as Americans we don't often travel in this part of the world because of the distance. It's 19 hours in the air from Minneapolis to Singapore. One has to literally head into outer space if you want to get farther away from home."
How has this experience changed you?
"It has given me a greater appreciation and understanding of the need for countries to work together in solving the global problems. The innate tendency in all of us is to protect our families and our country and often it results in us becoming quite territorial. It is natural and will probably always be that way; however, we simply have to do a better job of educating ourselves and particularly the young people that what we all do as individual countries affects other countries. When we were living in the United States, I had much more of the view that what we do in the United States is for the most part better than how everyone else is doing it. I have learned at a far deeper level that there are other countries who do things fairly well too and we could learn a great deal from studying the way other countries run things. I have also learned, because of our dominate presence of the United States, how the actions of our leaders, good or bad, affects our countries perception of us. Finally, I have developed an even greater appreciation for the public school teachers in the states. They are incredibly dedicated and often have to work under difficult circumstances and endure criticism that is simply not justified."
Will you miss Singapore?
"We will certainly miss Singapore, just like we miss Brainerd, because everything has gone very well for us, but our roots are in the United States so it is time to come back home. My new job will require us to live in Washington, D.C., and we're looking forward to the assignment. I'm now 64 years old but there is always a new mountain to climb, a new frontier to explore and a new fear to overcome. I don't know how long I will work in D.C., but I can easily see myself working there for another seven or eight years. Retirement has never held much appeal for me. Eight years ago I didn't know jobs like the one I'm about to assume existed."
Any plans to return or retire to Brainerd, by any chance?
"We always return to Brainerd every summer. We spent 31 years of our lives in Brainerd. It will always hold a special attachment for Judy and me. I don't know whether we will return to Brainerd some day. The thought of that warms my heart. I check in daily, via the Web, with the Brainerd Daily Dispatch."
JODIE TWEED may be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.
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