The Facets consulting team represents three of the elements of a collaborative learning culture: parents, teachers and administration. The team has a long history of working together at Clara Barton Open School in Minneapolis – a public K-8 school deeply rooted in progressive education.
Steve DeLapp
Widely recognized as a leader in progressive education, Steve has dedicated his career to creating joyful, lifelong learners. Amid education trends and fads, Steve remained steadfast in his vision at Clara Barton Open School, where he was principal for 20 years.
“Best Practice: Today’s Standards for Teaching & Learning in America’s Schools” describes Barton as a place “…where kids’ interests were piqued, where exploration and expression were valued, where individual differences were prized, and where teachers could operate as thoughtful facilitators of learning. As a result of this faithful implementation, Barton is still there, still thriving, and has become one of the most celebrated schools in the Midwest. Today, when we visit Barton, we see a Best Practice school in the truest sense. Principal Steve DeLapp and his amazing staff have simply been doing progressive education steadily and genuinely.
Steve’s career in education began 40 years ago when he taught a class of 36 sixth graders and became an early-adopter of the alternative education movement. He taught all elementary grades during the first half of his career in rural, urban and suburban communities, and spent a few years teaching at the university level. Steve became principal of an open school in central Ohio in the latter 1980s, until family connections in Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Public School’s long-term support for Open Schools drew him to the principal position at Barton in 1992.
As an administrator, Steve specializes in curriculum, instruction and assessment, as well as professional development, parent involvement and school culture-building. His commitment to bringing out the best in students and teachers is evidenced in everyday interactions at the school, in student achievement, and in professional teacher recognition – including a Barton staff member being named Minnesota Teacher of the Year in 2010.
Kathy Scoggin
Ask her former students, and they’ll tell you Kathy Scoggin never met a science experiment she didn’t like. But they’ll also tell you Kathy taught them how to think like a scientist no matter what subject they were studying. That is, she strived every day to motivate her learners to observe, appreciate and ask questions about the world around them. Kathy believes Albert Einstein succinctly stated her teaching philosophy with these words, "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science.”
A career educator, Kathy began teaching the year before Jimmy Carter was elected President of the United States (1975). Her experiences are a blend of classroom teaching and district leadership for the Minneapolis Public Schools in the areas of staff development design and implementation, instructional strategies, and curriculum design for science literacy. She most recently taught fifth and sixth grade students at Clara Barton Open School in Minneapolis. She also spent a year on sabbatical as the Teacher-in-Residence for The Bakken Museum, a library and museum of Electricity in Life, located in Minneapolis.
Kathy’s expertise derives from a wide range of educational projects and programs she has been involved with: National Science Foundation grants (ScienceWorks! and Math/Science Matters), STEM Leadership, Cognitive Coaching, Habits of Mind, Responsive Classroom, and Brain-Based Teaching and Learning. Her primary focus for her Master’s work was brain-based research and its connections to teaching and learning.
Steve Richter
Steve has spent his career in sales and marketing, selling high-end luxury items and creating marketing plans for some of the largest companies in the world. However, it has always been the time spent volunteering in the classroom or involved in school business that has been the most rewarding.
Before re-directing his talents to progressive education, Steve was executive vice president of two companies: Knock, a branding and design firm; and Healthy Healing, a book publisher and manufacturer of healthcare products. Today, his passion is to help more kids have the education his children have been lucky enough to receive.
Steve continues his deep involvement as a parent at Clara Barton Open School. He has been a member of the parent teacher council for 12 years – five years as Chair of the Barton School Foundation and two years as council parent co-chair. He was instrumental in starting the school’s green initiative, which has become one of the most successful in the district, and has spent hundreds of hours in the classroom, on field trips and volunteering for school social events and fundraising projects.
In addition to his experience at Barton, Steve was a member of the South High School site council for two years, and a marketing consultant for the South Foundation and for the principal. He also served on the library board at The Perpich Center for Arts Education and has been a regular volunteer at Perpich and Circus Juventas.