I was born and raised on the East side of St. Paul. I attended St. Paul Public schools from k-6th grade, Transfiguration in Oakdale for 7th and 8th, and Hill Murray High School in Maplewood. I earned my B.S and teaching License at the University of Minnesota in Elementary Education, my Masters Degree in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Minnesota and my K-12 Educational Leadership and Administrative license through the University of St. Cloud.
For 10 years I taught at Clear Springs Elementary in the Minnetonka Public Schools System. I taught 2nd grade for 2 years, 3rd grade for 3 years, 4th grade, and 1st grade for 1 year each and 5th grade for 3 years. Throughout that time, I served on numerous school and district committees. Along the way I got married to Rick Kranz who was born and raised in the North St. Paul and Maplewood area. We started having a family and were blessed to have 4 sons. During my 10th year in Minnetonka, I was pregnant with our 3rd son and we decided to “downsize” and make changes so I could be home full-time with our children. We sold our home and moved back to North St. Paul in 2000. We raised our 4 sons in North St. Paul. We were a busy family keeping up with school, hockey, baseball, soccer, lacrosse, show choir and theater. All of our sons attended St. Peter’s in North St. Paul. Three of our sons attended and graduated from North St. Paul High School. One of our sons attended and graduated from Hill Murray High School.
My oldest son, Joe, was born in 1995 and graduated from North High School, went to UMD and St. Paul Technical school. He is working full-time in Construction, framing residential homes and decks throughout the suburbs of the metro area. He got married in the summer of 2023. My second son Jim, was born in 1997, graduated from North St. Paul High School, graduated from Hamline University with a B.A. in Marketing, and has been working for Target Head Quarters as a sales analyst since 2018. Jacob was born in 2000, attended and graduated from Hill Murray High School, and graduated from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management Spring of 2021 with a B.S. degree in Entrepreneurship. He launched his own Sports marketing consultant business in 2021. Josh was born in 2002 and graduated from North High School and is currently majoring in Chemistry at Iowa State University.
I was one of the first teachers hired at North Metro Flex Academy. This is my second place I call “home”. For the first two years, I was on the Board of Directors and taught 2nd grade. In addition to teaching, I worked to start many of the partnerships and events we have for our school. For three years I was the Assistant Principal at our school, supporting the teachers and instructional leadership of the school. Since February of 2021, I have been the Principal.
In my free time…I love spending time with family and friends, reading, cooking and baking, camping (in a tent) up on the North Shore, being at the cabin (relaxing/playing games/enjoying the water), traveling to places where we can enjoy the ocean and mountains (Florida, Out West, Hawaii, Mexico), riding around in my convertible, walking and hiking, especially around Como Lake, going to Farmer’s Markets, listening to many different styles of music, going to plays and concerts, pottery, knitting, and crocheting.