Becker Building and Grounds Director Chuck Stanger may be approaching retirement this summer, but he still has some items on his agenda to finish before he closes his office door for the last time on July 31.

 

With the close of the school year, there are issues with new carpeting, paint and air quality systems to be installed, as well as potential new parking lots at the primary and intermediate schools, new heat pumps to replace the 15-year old units and a host of other details.

 

The current Becker campus is very different from the one he began working on in 1983, Stanger said.  At that time, the high school was 120,000 sq. ft., and the intermediate school, the only other building, occupied only 60,000 sq. ft. With the building boom in the 1990’s, the district added the 183,000 sq. ft. middle school and the 88,000 sq. ft. primary school, while the high school grew to 360,000 sq. ft. over that same time.  The district also added renovations to the gymnasium; outdoor playing fields were renovated, while the completion of the new state-of-the-art Performing Arts Center and the Aquatic Center are kind of the “icing on the cake” of Stanger’s long career.

 

The BHS field house was another bright spot in his tenure, he said, as it was the first one at a high school in Minnesota, and the project was completed for $1.8 million dollars, well under the estimated $2 million dollar cost estimate.

 

The long-term support from the Becker community has been much appreciated during his time in the district, Stanger said.  Residents have always been willing to step up when they see a need for something in the school district, he said, which has become the focus for the community in many ways.

 

Stanger said he will especially miss working with the administration on the various projects, especially District Business Manager Joe Prom, who Stanger said brings both the financial knowledge and the human side of the equation together in managing the funds for the district.

 

Stanger has coached the Becker Bulldog baseball team for the past eight years, and he plans to stay in that position even after retirement.  He noted that his wife of 40 years, well-known area realtor Mary Jo Stanger, has had to put up with a lot of time with him away from home during his career, between coaching JV football and baseball, and answering the 4 a.m. calls in regard to mechanical issues in one of the campus buildings, like the Christmas Day water leak that had to be addressed last year.

 

While the school still occupies much of his time, Stanger and his wife are planning a number of activities once retirement becomes official, including some “snowbird” time in Arizona during January.  He said that their sons both live nearby, and that time away is limited by how long Mary Jo can go without seeing the grandchildren.  

 

They both are looking forward to some golf in the Arizona sunshine come January, though. Stanger also has some fishing and hunting trips planned for the summer and fall, as well as a potential “color tour” in the far north this year.

 

His time living and working in Becker has been “a joy,” Stanger said, though he had very little knowledge of the community when he first took on the position with the school district, he said, having only heard about “strawberry fields and potatoes” before he arrived.

 

He came from the Paynesville area originally, where his father ran a welding company until his untimely death, when his older brother Jim and his mother took over the business. The brothers were “not very brotherly,” Stanger recalls of that time, but that situation has changed over time to the point where they talk every week and go on hunting and fishing trips every year.  He also has three younger sisters.

 

Stanger said he arrived “under the radar” when he took on the position, and he plans to leave the same way, with only a small gathering of colleagues and friends at a location to be named later.  A surprise party his wife had been planning went awry when a call from a staffer at this newspaper seeking a picture for a party advertisement alerted Stanger to the plan, which he promptly vetoed.

 

Overall, Stanger said he is pleased he is leaving the district buildings in good operating condition for the next director.“My name is on the label,” Stanger said, “and I always want it (the campus) to look good.”