Continuing a lifetime in education
Gary Knackstedt ready to jump into new role as Lodi Unified trustee
Soon a new trustee, Gary Knackstedt, will be sworn in to the Lodi Unified School District Board as representative of Area 2 in North Stockton. His official start date is Dec. 6.
Knackstedt is a long-time educator who had a 37-year career in education as a teacher at Lodi High School.
He began in 1972 teaching business classes, which had a large focus on teaching how to use typewriters. Because the subject matter was popular, his first class had about 60 students in a large room with row after row of manual typewriters.
In the class, he remembers the large rumbling sound when he’d yell throw and students would reposition the carriage on their typewriters to begin the next line.
Over time, the loud mechanical sounds of typewriters gave way to the quiet clicking of electronic typewriters and computers.
“Everything progresses and changes. You have to go with the flow,” he said.
Similar changes happen in education every few years, since someone gets a idea of how they believe they can make education better and teaching gets reinvented, Knackstedt said. Teachers must adapt to these changes fairly quickly. However, he believes teachers have gotten quite savvy of how to make the best of any new education strategy that comes their way.
“You need to make sure teachers have the support they need to do a good job — that’s the most important element, I think,” Knackstedt said.
What initially drew him to a career in education was his love of attending school. Knackstedt joked that he was one of those children whose mother sent him to kindergarten and he never left. He enjoyed learning different subjects and meeting the many different people at school.
In addition to teaching, he also served as athletic director for five
“I do it because it’s important. I really truly believe that education is the answer to a lot of society’s ills.” GARY KNACKSTEDT INCOMING LODI UNIFIED SCHOOL BOARD TRUSTEE
years at Lodi High School until 2009, having served previously as head coach for the Flames’ track and field, cross country and tennis.
Continuing in his passion for education, Knackstedt served on the GOT Kids Foundation to help raise money for teachers and special projects in and outside of the classroom up until he was elected to the board.
It was that passion and encouragement from his wife that pushed him to take a more active role and run for the school board.
“I do it because it’s important. I really truly believe that education is the answer to a lot of society’s ills,”
Knackstedt said. It is cheaper to educate than to send someone to prison, he said.
Moving forward, Knackstedt said he will likely begin work on negotiations with most of the labor groups, since those talks have started again this year. He expects there to be a learning curve as far as how the intricate details of the board works but is looking forward to getting started.
“I’m just going to jump in with both feet on December 6 and do the best I can,” he said.