Johanna Cooper, a native of Puerto Rico who most recently served as the curriculum coordinator for the West Bend-Mallard and Gilmore City-Bradgate districts (she was also the K-6 principal at GC-B), is the new superintendent as she took over for Steve Hanson on July 1. Lana Roberts is also replacing Clyde Tarrence as the middle/high school principal and making history in the process — she is the first enrolled member of the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa to ever serve as a principal at MSS.

Cooper, who resides in Ames with her fiance, took a long and winding road to her current landing spot, leaving the small Puerto Rican town where she grew up to study at Texas A&M University and becoming a teacher and eventually a public school administrator in the Houston area. She then spent 10 years living in the Middle East, Mexico and Thailand before her son opted to attend Iowa State University, so in her own words, she decided to be “that mom” and follow him.

That move led to a job as an elementary principal in the Ankeny school district and her subsequent positions with West Bend-Mallard and Gilmore City-Bradgate, two small districts located north of Fort Dodge that operate under a whole grade sharing agreement for grades 7-12. During an interview on Tuesday evening before she held a meet and greet in the commons area, Cooper said she was drawn to MSS, the only school in Iowa overseen by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), because it provided a unique opportunity.

“I’m always attracted to things that are a little bit different,” she said. “It’s closer to home than Gilmore City and West Bend, and also my fiance works in Marshalltown. So we wanted to come closer to home.”

New MSS Superintendent Johanna Cooper interacts with Tiffany Alva, Alex Sjoquist and their children Azure and Izidore as they enjoy ice cream sandwiches during back to school night on Tuesday. Classes at MSS began Thursday.

One initiative she’s particularly excited about leading at MSS is the development of a five-year strategic plan, which will entail gathering input from a wide range of stakeholders to assess the school’s most pressing needs.

“I think that is the main thing that attracted me, going through that process and starting that process from the beginning to see it to completion hopefully,” Cooper said. “So we’re gonna let the community, students and everyone to drive that process.”

Like West Bend-Mallard and Gilmore City-Bradgate, MSS, with most class sizes at around 15 to 20 students, will offer Cooper the chance to get to build relationships with all of them.

“You get to know every family, every kid, who’s related to who. It’s a different sense of community, so when this position came up, I was like ‘OK, it’s a small school,'” she said. “I love that my office is in the building so I get to see all the students all the time instead of being in a separate building. So that’s another thing that attracted me here.”

And although she is not a member of the tribe, Cooper is doing her best to immerse herself in its culture and language — she attended the annual Meskwaki Powwow last weekend and enjoyed her first ever Indian taco.

“Everybody so far has been so welcoming, so that sense of community (is great). Even though I’m not part of the tribe, I still feel welcome, and they’re welcoming me with open arms,” she said. “(I’m excited about) getting to see the students, getting to know the students, seeing everybody Thursday, just welcoming everybody back, seeing the growth that the students are gonna have this year, developing that strategic plan and making sure that everything we do goes back to that mission and vision that we have for our students.”

Roberts, on the other hand, has deep local roots: she grew up on the Settlement, attended MSS until eighth grade and then went to South Tama County (STC) High School for a year before finishing her secondary education at Flandreau Indian School in South Dakota and earning her college degree through MCC, Buena Vista University and the University of Northern Iowa. She has been employed at MSS for the last 21 years — 19 of them as a teacher and the last two as curriculum and instruction director — and about six years ago, she decided to begin working toward her master’s degree that would allow her to become an administrator.

“I was waiting until my baby grew up a little bit. My baby’s nine now, so I was waiting until he got a little bit older and then I could concentrate on school,” she said, referring to the youngest of her five children. “And it wasn’t always my goal to be a principal. I never thought I wanted to teach, you know, and then I guess it just happened.”

With Cooper coming to MSS as a bit of an outsider, Roberts, who knows the school and the tribe as well as anyone, feels she can serve as something of a compass for the new superintendent along with being a strong collaborator on the aforementioned strategic plan.

“I just think that culturally and being from here, I think I have a lot to bring and to help, to guide her I guess, not to guide her, but to work with her and lead with her,” Roberts said.

The new principal aims to be a voice for both her students and the community at large and maybe even inspire young Warriors to want to fill her shoes someday — though, as she noted, it won’t be anytime soon.

“I care about this place and I just want the best, to make it a good place for our staff and students and a place that everybody wants to be,” she said. “Just building a family atmosphere, that’s my main goal, and making sure that we’re embracing the culture and language everywhere that we can… (The students) see me as a role model, and I’m here for the long run. I’m not leaving.”

The feedback she has received so far from students and parents has been overwhelmingly positive, and as previously alluded to, Roberts intends to stay in her job for a long time, citing a desire to reduce the high turnover rates in administrative positions that she witnessed during her tenure as an educator at MSS.

“I just feel like being from the community and already having relationships with families, students and staff all these years (is a huge benefit) because there’s a lot of staff that have been here almost as long as I have,” she said. “I thought I’d be nervous, but I’m not, you know? Because I feel like ‘Oh my gosh, school’s starting.’ I’m like ‘No, we’ll be OK.’ And then (I’m happy) for everybody else to be excited with me.”

The Meskwaki Settlement School is located at 1608 305th St. Tama, IA, 52339.

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Contact Robert Maharry

at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.