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The Alden-Conger school board on Monday voted to approve Jenny Hanson as the district’s new superintendent. Hanson currently serves as the principal of Alden-Conger School, and will continue to work in this role after taking over the new role.

She will be filling the position currently held by Allen Berg, who serves as superintendent for both Alden-Conger and Glenville-Emmons schools and submitted his resignation in February.

Originally from a farm between Wells and Freeborn, Hanson is a graduate of Alden-Conger High School and has many years of teaching experience, both in the area and outside. After getting her education degree from South Dakota State University, she taught in South Dakota for a few years before moving back to southeast Minnesota when her husband got a job in Albert Lea. She taught for a year at Glenville-Emmons and eventually got a teaching job at Alden-Conger School.

After eight years of working for Alden-Conger, Hanson took an administrative position in the Albert Lea school district. She worked there for 11 years.

While working for the Albert Lea school district, Hanson pursued her director of community education license. She also got her principal license during this time.

She became the principal of Alden-Conger School three years ago and has been in the role ever since. She got her superintendent license over the summer.

Hanson said she had no immediate plans of becoming superintendent when she got her license, but she wanted to be qualified to help wherever she was needed. When it was announced that Berg was resigning from the position and the Alden-Conger school district would be separating from the Glenville-Emmons school district, she decided to apply.

“I have pride in this school, pride in the community. I feel very connected here, and when I came back here as principal, it kind of felt like I was coming home,” Hanson said.

Hanson will officially take over the position on July 1. She will continue to be the principal for Alden-Conger High School, which she said works great as it allows her to continue working closely with teachers and students.

Hanson said she works well with Berg and the transition has been quite smooth.

She also said she has a few very specific goals to work through once she becomes superintendent. The school, she explained, is currently in a statutory operating debt and needs to get out of the deficit.

“We have very strategically over this past school year looked at operations and trying to make everything as efficient as possible, and as financially responsible as possible,” Hanson said.

One way the school plans to do this is by combining some classes, which the school has done in the past.

“The concept isn’t new here, but it’s been a while,” Hanson said, adding the plan would involve reductions and changes in the classroom structure to put the school in a more secure financial situation.

Hanson said she wants to support the teachers as best she can during the transition. She held a meeting to try and alleviate any anxiety about the school’s new operation plan.

She said the school must implement the plan while still being effective, meeting the students’ needs and helping them grow.

The school district recently sent out a survey to students, teachers, parents and caregivers and other community members. They received 800 responses back, and used the data to create a new strategic plan for the school district.

Hanson said she and the school board go back to the survey answers whenever the school is making a decision to ensure they are following what the community, students, teachers and parents want.

“It’s important that we’re all working on those things together,” she said.

Hanson said the district plans to inform the community about changes being made to Alden-Conger School before the end of the school year.