News Photo by Crystal Nelson Alpena Public Schools Superintendent John VanWagoner, right, talks with Alpena High School Athletic Director Jon Studley on Tuesday while touring the school’s athletic facilities.

ALPENA — After leading Alpena Public Schools for the last five years, John VanWagoner has handed over the keys to the district.

VanWagoner spent his last day as superintendent in-district on Tuesday, where he met with interim Superintendent Susan Wooden one last time, showed Alpena High School’s new athletic director Jon Studley the high school’s athletic facilities, and turned in his set of keys.

He will attend the Board of Education’s Finance Committee meeting virtually today before officially starting as superintendent of Traverse City Area Public Schools after that.

VanWagoner was selected as Alpena’s superintendent in 2016, after former superintendent Brent Holcomb left the district for a job downstate. Although VanWagoner said he’s loved every minute of the job in Alpena, he is leaving for a larger district where he expects to face bigger challenges.

VanWagoner said he feels good about where he’s leaving Alpena at this point. He said there was about $60,000 in the bank when he walked in and all of the employees had taken a 10% pay cut to overcome a steep deficit.

“I feel like, working closely with staff and through great relationships with our union groups, we’ve been able to build this thing back up,” he said, noting the district will be able to “weather the storm” and maintain a savings account, even with expenses the district might incur because of the coronavirus.

While VanWagoner most recently worked to secure voter approval of $33.9 million in bond sales to renovate the district’s schools, he said academic achievements were his biggest successes.

Some of those achievements included advancements in the district’s science, technology, engineering, and math — or STEM — program, the expansion of the high school’s career and technical education classes, starting project-based learning at Thunder Bay Junior High School, and the Math Pathways program, through which kids are able to learn math at their own pace.

“The bond is important, right, but what’s it about? It’s about what we do with kids in classrooms,” he said. “That’s what we’re in the business of doing, and, so, for me, that’s the most important that I hope continues on and gets even stronger.”

He said his greatest disappointment is leaving the district amid the coronavirus.

VanWagoner said he is proud of the work teachers, support staff, cooks, and custodians have done in getting through the pandemic. But he said it was disappointing to see spring sports canceled, the robotic season canceled, and to not be able to tell the Alpena school board goodbye in person.

VanWagoner said Alpena has been a great place to raise his family, as his children have had a great education here. He said the decision to leave was tough, but it was a decision he made with his family’s future in mind.

“I feel like the next person who steps in is going to be able to continue the upward trend and just do great things,” he said.

The Alpena school board has begun its search for a new superintendent and hopes to hire someone by September.

In the meantime, Wooden will oversee the district. She is a longtime educator and administrator with family ties to Alpena. She retired as superintendent of Beaverton Schools one year ago.

Crystal Nelson can be reached at 989-358-5687 or cnelson@thealpenanews.com.