Scott Williams, swilliams@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader File Photo After seceding from the Shawano School District, officials in Gresham transformed their high school at 501 Schabow St. into a K-12 campus now attended by about 330 students.
Gresham School District Superintendent Keary Mattson has announced plans to retire, ending a career that began in the classroom and culminated with establishing a new stand-alone school district.
Mattson has informed colleagues that he will retiring after the current school year, effective June 30, which comes nine years after he left a principal’s job in Marion to become superintendent in Gresham.
He was hired shortly after Gresham residents broke away from the Shawano School District to start their own district, amid fears that Gresham’s school would otherwise be closed in a budget-cutting move.
“He took on something that was quite unusual,” Gresham School Board President Andy Schmidt said. “He gave us good years of knowledge and leadership.”
Mattson, 66, confirmed that he will be retiring effective June 30, but he declined to comment further.
The school district has begun the search for a successor, and community leaders throughout Gresham are anxious to see who will fill Mattson’s vacancy.
Village President Ken Beyer said Mattson’s lasting imprint on the community is that the school district even exists. Without Mattson’s leadership and hard work, Beyer said, the local school likely would have closed and Gresham would not enjoy its current autonomy and strong local identity.
“He’s done a great job for us,” Beyer said. “He’s really built the school.”
Mattson began his career as a physical education teacher, working in the Hortonville School District throughout the 1970s and ’80s. After a few years at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, he became principal of the combined high school-junior high school in the Marion School District, where he worked for 10 years.
He left the Marion principal’s job in 2007 to lead Gresham’s efforts at establishing its own local school district.
For decades, Gresham had been part of the Shawano-Gresham School District, which included Gresham High School at its current location, 501 Schabow St. When fears stirred that district administrators were thinking of closing the school to save money, members of the community decided that seceding into their own district was the only way to save the school.
Mattson earned high praise from colleagues and others in the community for his work in assembling the district, from filling staff vacancies to mapping out the infrastructure.
“It was a struggle for a while,” School Board member Margie Eberhard said. “He worked a lot of hours — lots and lots of hours — to make it go.”
The district transformed its property into a campus for kindergarten throughout 12th grade, with a combined current enrollment of about 330 students.
In a community with modest family incomes, Gresham was honored repeatedly under Wisconsin’s School of Recognition awards for academic excellence rising above local poverty. Student test scores registered above the state average, too, and Gresham twice was listed among the nation’s top schools by U.S. News and World Report.
Outside of the classroom, the district’s beloved Gresham Wildcats competed in football, basketball and many other sports, earning recognition for outstanding sportsmanship three years in a row from the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.
Schmidt said he was impressed at Mattson’s success introducing technology into Gresham classrooms, including a computer device for every student.
“He’s just done so many things,” Schmidt said.
During this school year, administrators proposed a $9 million expansion and modernization of the district’s aging facilities. Mattson made it clear that, regardless of the proposal’s outcome, he was considering making this his final year as superintendent.
Although voters in April rejected referendums to borrow money for the facility upgrades, colleagues say the setback will not tarnish Mattson’s record of achievement in Gresham.
School Board member Alphia Creapeau said the superintendent has demonstrated a commitment to classroom excellence, and has succeeded in building a local school district that is both a stimulating place for students to learn and a comfortable place for employees to work.
“When you walk into the Gresham School District, you walk into a warm and friendly environment,” Creapeau said. “That comes from the top down.”