Metro East District ACE Award
Molly Roeske, Principal
Lake Middle School, Woodbury
Nominated by Gillian Teoh-Berbee
Presented by Amy B. Johnson, Metro East District Chair
I have had the great pleasure of knowing Molly Roeske, for 17 years; first as a colleague, and since 2011, as the principal of Lake Middle School in Woodbury. Molly is the administrator every school choir director dreams of working with! She believes in staffing equitably so the choir teachers have manageable class sizes and can build personal relationships with the singers in each section of choir. Even in the face of yearly budget cuts, she continues to staff choir at 2.0 FTE to manage the 600+ students enrolled in the curricular choirs. She also advocates for small group voice lessons built into the daily schedule for voice checks and sectional time. In the 2018-19 school year, Molly suggested that we add an option for 8th graders to take choir every day (instead of just every-other day). After a successful pilot year in choir, every-day music courses options are being expanded to band and orchestra as well.
During her tenure, LMS has sent 9 students to National ACDA honor choirs, 7 students to North Central ACDA honor choirs, and well over 100 students to ACDA-MN state honor choirs. She allows us to offer two extra-curricular choirs at the school (with 120-200 students participating annually), and an annual musical. Additionally, she has dreams of starting an all-district staff choir to get the teachers, administrators, and other staff members to build community across our large school district. This is an administrator who believes that music is for everybody, and that anyone can sing.