T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — Incoming Rogers Elementary School Principal Brooke Will, pictured, is set to officially take on her new position beginning July 1.

Brooke Will, a native of Tennessee and a graduate of Quincy University in southern Illinois who has spent most of her adult life as an educator in Minnesota (and earned a Master’s degree in educational leadership and an educational specialist degree from Minnesota State University during that time), is excited to take on a new journey right here in central Iowa as the next principal of Rogers Elementary School beginning July 1.

“We are very excited about Ms. Brooke Will joining our MCSD team and providing leadership for the Rogers Elementary School Community. Her demonstrated knowledge, skill and recent successful instructional leadership and principal experiences has great potential to benefit the Rogers students, staff, parents and community,” Superintendent Theron Schutte said.

Iowa is the seventh state Will has lived in, and she said the main reason she initially showed interest in the job was the fact that her daughter is in the Des Moines area. Her work in Minnesota began as a fifth grade teacher in the Mankato public school system before she became an instructional coach/mentor and eventually an administrator at the Madelia Public School District, which serves a small but diverse community with a major meatpacking plant about 25 miles southwest of Mankato.

“I decided I want to be a little bit closer to my family. My daughter lives in Iowa, so I threw my name in the hat for several admin positions, and I fell in love with Marshalltown when I came — the community, the staff that I interacted with,” she said. “And knowing the type of school that Rogers is and the place that it needs to go was really exciting for me because that’s my wheelhouse. I love the idea of having, like, this little global community right here in Marshalltown, Iowa, and working with those students and families to help them have the best version of whatever life they desire.”

As Madelia is a much smaller community than Marshalltown with an estimated population of 2,369 according to 2022 figures, Will wore “all of the hats” when she worked there, so she’s excited to have a larger administrative team to collaborate with at the MCSD.

“That learning piece has been invaluable to me, but most of all, I just love to love on families, and I built great community relationships and I felt like Marshalltown was open and ready for that and Rogers was ready for that,” Will said.

While she comes into the new job with a great deal of optimism, Will also acknowledges the challenges she will face — namely, the fact that by academic metrics, Rogers has been one of the district’s lowest performing school buildings in recent years.

“My goal is to work on building relationships with our students and families at a deeper level and also really helping my staff form that collective efficacy that will help them truly — I want them to really own that mindset that all kids can learn, and no matter where they come from, what their background is, what their socioeconomic status is, their cognitive ability, that they can learn and grow,” Will said. “And so I think that’s going to take some renewed excitement and energy among the staff to help them to believe in themselves so that we can do what’s best for kids.”

She’ll also look to provide stability in the position after Rogers utilized an interim principal for a portion of the 2023-2024 school year. First and foremost, though, Will feels building relationships is the key to reaching those goals.

“I always say that knowing somebody’s humanity first is most important, and then we can worry about achievement and academics and all of those things,” she said. “For me, it’s about the people and the human first, and then the rest will fall in line.”

While there’s still plenty of summer left to enjoy, Will is counting down the days until the classroom fills up again and she’s meeting her new students and colleagues for the first time and introducing herself in the process — they’ll learn from her, and she’ll learn from them.

“The other principals, the directors, everybody has just, with open arms, welcomed me and repeatedly told me how much they were here to support me and stand by me. And that’s really important moving to a new place where I know no one,” she said.

When she isn’t working, Will enjoys exploring new restaurants, hiking, reading and spending time with her family. But education is her passion, and she can’t wait to bring that passion to Rogers.

Will can be contacted at bwill@marshalltown.k12.ia.us, and Rogers Elementary School, located at 406 Summit St., can be reached at (641) 754-1070.