New IAAE Board Members Elected at Conference

Joel Schutte, Central Region IAAE Representative

Joel Schutte, principal of Harbor Alternative in Altoona, was elected to serve the Central Region. He will serve on the IAAE Board of Directors for a term of two years.

Schutte is a graduate of Des Moines Lincoln High School. He is a 1992 graduate of Central College and received his Masters of. Education in Educational Counseling from the University of Phoenix (Main campus, Phoenix, Az). He earned his Endorsement in Administration from Viterbo University in 2004. Schutte spent three years working for Orchard Place/Des Moines Child Guidance/PACE in a couple of different capacities, with his last position there as Casework Therapist in the S.T.O.P. program. In 1998, he began working as a counselor in the Oasis Program at Southeast Polk High School. Schutte became Principal Joel Schutte, Central Region IAAE Representative of Harbor Alternative (SE Polk) in the fall of 2006. He lives in Pleasant Hill with his wife, Marna, and four children (Jorie 18, Cade 9, Quinn 8, and Beck 6).

According to Schutte‘s application to run for this office, "I have dedicated my career to alternative education. For the past five years I have been principal of Harbor Alternative in the Southeast Polk School District, and before that spent eight years as an at-risk counselor at Southeast Polk High School. Recently I joined Rich Blonigan from SCAVO and Kim Davis from Walnut Creek on the planning committee for the Risky Business conference in the fall."

Ken Burrington, Northeast Region IAAE Representative

Ken Burrington of Osage Alternative program was elected to serve a two-year term representing the
Northeast Region.

This excerpt was taken from Ken‘s application: "Alternative education‘s place in the overall scheme of education is here to stay and growing. I feel we need to continue to work on organizing and communicating. There are many very successful programs out there, so what are they doing and how did they get to be successful. How can we better help each other? I also feel we need to educate the public on what Alternative Education is and what it looks like. There are so many misconceptions out there about our programs and our students."

Brian Friesner, Northwest Region IAAE Representative

Brian Friesner from Sergent Bluff flexible Learning Center will be serving the Northwest Region for the next two years. Brian graduated from Morningside College in the Spring 2003. He was a 5th grade teacher and a substitute teacher before coming to the Flexible Learning Center in the Fall of 2005. Brian teaches high school math, science, social studies courses. He has been a athletic coach going for more than 15 years. He has coached high school vol- leyball and currently is a coach of high school cross coun- try, boys basketball, boys/girls track and field at Sergeant Bluff-Luton. Brian says, "I truly enjoying working with young people. My free time is spent with my lovely wife of ten years, Michealeen, my energetic son, Luke, and our two dogs. We enjoy spending time together outdoors and understanding why "why" is good question to everything
for my son!"