T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — From left to right, Chelsey Plants (Fisher), Oscar Cardenas (Woodbury) and Staci Bergman (Anson) are all taking on new elementary principal roles with the Marshalltown Community School District this year.

Staci Bergman, Oscar Cardenas and Chelsey Plants all have different personal and professional backgrounds, but they have one thing in common: they’re excited to be taking on new administrative roles with the Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD).

Cardenas, who has already worked for the district as an English Language Learners (ELL) teacher at Miller Middle School, is stepping into the principal position at Woodbury Elementary School. After being born in California and growing up in Sioux City, he majored in elementary education at Buena Vista University and started his career as a bilingual paraprofessional at Storm Lake Middle School before teaching third grade and fifth grade migrant education for the state of Georgia. He also did some nonprofit work, obtained a master’s in social work and then moved back to Iowa when his wife got a job in Ames. He then spent five years at Miller, and for the last six years, he has served as an associate middle school principal at Hiatt Middle School in Des Moines.

Bergman, who was born in Florida and raised in Ottumwa, is replacing the recently retired Ronnie Manis at Anson Elementary. She also studied at BVU and earned an elementary education degree there with endorsements in reading and social studies. She taught 6-8 reading at Ottumwa for 14 years, got a master’s in educational leadership and took an assistant elementary principal job in Grinnell last year.

Plants, who grew up in Grinnell and is taking on the elementary principalship at Fisher, got an early childhood special education degree from St. Ambrose, taught preschool, special ed and first grade at Clear Creek-Amana for six years and then spent eight years at Brooklyn-Guernsey-Malcom (BGM) as a first grade teacher, then a transitional kindergarten instructor and, finally, an instructional coach for letters training while working on her educational leadership degree at Drake. She spent last year as the elementary principal at Collins-Maxwell and jumped on the opportunity to apply at Marshalltown after Mark Lee announced his departure near the end of 2024-2025 after an eight-year tenure.

Because Fisher has the Level 3 special education program where all students on alternate assessments come, Plants hopes to “unify” the building a bit more between the two worlds. Bergman aims to bring equity to the Extended Core special ed program at Anson to ensure that students in every building receive the same services and quality of education.

“I think that we’re gonna continue that collaboration and just making sure we’re all on the same page, and we even collaborate because some of my kids might end up needing to go to (Plants’s) program,” she said. “So looking at data and just student needs, and I think just getting to know the staff here and improving, building off of the culture that they’ve already kind of established, and with a new person coming in, just building off of that (will be important).”

Cardenas has spent his first few weeks getting to know staff and setting up one-on-one meetings at Woodbury, the district’s only dual language, Spanish immersion elementary school. Like the other two newcomers, he is replacing a long-tenured predecessor, Anel Garza, who is now the MCSD’s director of student services after 13 years leading Woodbury.

“Just building off of the dual language program that they have going, the values for that school, dual language and (Social-Emotional Learning), the values are really strong there, so it’s nice to walk into that,” he said. “I think what we want to do is focus a little more on bridging this year as far as bridging the two languages and teacher strategies for that around bridging is a good next step. But I mean, they’re doing a really good job as far as creative implementation with the dual language and fine tuning the tweaks with the new curriculums that they’ve been using. And they’ve been doing a lot of work around collaborative problem solving, and so just building around that and getting people trained.”

All three of the new principals feel that they’re walking into great situations, with Plants joking that the staff at Fisher could practically run the building themselves.

“I have a very strong staff also. I kind of leaned on our admin assistant, new instructional coach, counselor as I’m kind of learning the building and the needs of the building going forward. (But it’s) kind of the same thing. I think (Manis) left me with a good foundation to build off,” Bergman said. “I’m learning what the needs are and how I can make a difference going forward.”

Cardenas highlighted the low turnover rate at Woodbury as only one new teacher is joining the staff this year along with some new paraeducators.

“People have been there a long time, and the system is great. Our coach is great. Our counselor is great. Our student resource provider is great too. It’s a really great team just building off of what is there already, and it’s a fresh set of eyes coming in with some new ideas,” he said.

For Bergman and Cardenas, they also believe their previous experiences in similarly diverse districts in other parts of the state will serve them well in Marshalltown.

“Being in Storm Lake, being in Des Moines and then having been here at Miller, it’s what I know. It’s kind of been my experience,” Cardenas said.

Bergman described Ottumwa as a “sister city” to Marshalltown because of the presence of JBS in both communities, and there are also over 40 languages spoken in Ottumwa as well.

“I also, as a teacher, taught EL and migrant summer school, so when this came open, I was really excited about it. When I started, it just kind of feels like home, honestly, even though it’s a new space (and) all new faces. I just kind of fit right in, and it feels like a good space to be in,” she said. “I do think it helps with just that mindset of understanding the different demographics. I do think it’ll be a benefit.”

When asked what they are most excited about for the upcoming school year, they all agreed that they can’t wait to welcome kids back to the buildings as classes are set to begin later this month. Coming from smaller districts like Collins-Maxwell and BGM, Plants is especially excited to have a larger administrative team and collaborate with five other elementary principals.

“I didn’t get into being a principal for the office work. It’s all about interacting with staff and kids, so I’m very much looking forward to buttoning up those tasks and jumping into (working with) the people,” Bergman said. “We are very blessed with everybody at central office, the other principals, anybody that we work with. Anytime we have a question, there’s somebody with an answer. There’s a lot of different pockets of people, whether it’s buildings and grounds, communication with Abby (Koch), elementary vs. secondary, so everybody’s been really welcoming and like ‘Here are all of the resources.’ So sending documents, calling to check in, we’ve even gotten cards from people just welcoming us. So it’s been super supportive and great.”

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.