Ollanketo’s career almost cut short
by Peter Bodley
Managing Editor
Dave Ollanketo retires from education June 15 after a 35-year career, including 31 years in Anoka-Hennepin School District 11.
Hoover Elementary School Principal Dave Ollanketo wore a different tie to school every day. At an open house in his honor May 20, Ollanketo shows students a few of the ties that were on display, and which people could purchase for $5 each, with the proceeds going to books for the school’s media center.
But his career almost came to an end prematurely eight years ago.
Ollanketo was preparing for his first principal assignment at Hoover Elementary School, Coon Rapids, in August 2003 and had been spending many hours at the school since his new job started July 1 that year.
The Friday morning before teachers were scheduled to report, which was a week before school started, Ollanketo awoke feeling really exhausted, which he put down to the late hours he was putting in at Hoover, he said.
But when he got up and went to the bathroom to splash some water on his face, he had no feeling from the water on the right side of his face, then he struggled to get back to bed because he was losing feeling on his right side, according to Ollanketo.
When he told his wife Loretta, she called 911 and he was taken by ambulance to the Mercy Hospital emergency room where he was diagnosed as having had a stroke.
He was given a clot busting drug to see if the clots that caused the stroke would dissolve without a hemorrhage taking place, but it was also a dangerous procedure, Ollanketo said.
He was admitted to Mercy and placed in the ICU where feeling began to return to his right side via some twitching.
Ollanketo only spent the weekend in the hospital, being released on the Monday once doctors had determined he was able to negotiate a hospital stairwell stairs, he said.
But while the hospital stay was short, Ollanketo had to undergo months of occupational and physical therapy.
What he hoped would be a short recovery period once the paralysis was gone took a lot longer than Ollanketo expected, he said.
“I had to re-remember functions and had to think about them,” Ollanketo said.
In fact, things did not go well at times because of “sensory overload,” he said.
And the stroke also damaged Ollanketo’s eyesight.
When he tried to focus on a person or object, Ollanketo said his peripheral vision would mix in with his focal direct vision and lead to disorientation.
He was referred to Phillips Eye Institute in Minneapolis where he was diagnosed with ambient focal incongruity and went through therapy two or three times a week for some time to try and rebuild his vision, according to Ollanketo.
“When I graduated from Phillips, I was ready to conquer the world, but I was told I had to pace myself,” Ollanketo said.
But Ollanketo was not cleared by his doctors to return to work as principal of Hoover until two weeks before the end of the 2003-2004 school year – Monday, May 24, 2004 .
He had missed almost all of that school year.
“Coming back was exciting beyond belief,” Ollanketo said.
And the fact that he was back on the job before the end of the school year was very important, according to Ollanketo.
“I wondered if I could do the job, but those two weeks showed me that I was able to do so and it also showed staff that I could do the job, too,” Ollanketo said.
Doctors have been unable to determine what caused the stroke, but there has been not been any reoccurrence.
The only lingering physical effects of the stroke are the fact that Ollanketo uses a cane and wears tinted glasses.
Until the spring of 2010, Ollanketo used the cane all the time, but then he took part in the annual Anoka-Hennepin Education Foundation’s Bill Gallagher walk-run for literacy for the first time since his stroke, he found that he could do so without the cane.
“I felt that was a real accomplishment.,” he said.
But he still uses the cane at school in case he feels some disorientation, Ollanketo said.
And the tinted glasses remain because of the eye condition caused by the stroke.
“I feel spinning a little bit at the end of the day,” Ollanketo said.
“Then I don’t sleep as well at night.”
Bright light, whether from the outside sunlight or interior lighting, still impact his vision, which is why he wears the tinted lenses.
“Bright light affects me,” Ollanketo said.
The kids at school only know Ollanketo with the tinted glasses, he said.
“Without them it would not be normal; they would not know me,” Ollanketo said.
Ollanketo is thankful that he has been able to be principal at Hoover for the past seven years and he is gratified for the support he has received from District 11, he said.
He made his decision to retire at the end of the current school year back on President’s Day, Feb. 21, Ollanketo said.
He reflected on the pros and cons, found the pros outweighed the cons and told the school district of his plans Feb. 28.
“Up to then I had not really thought about it at all,” Ollanketo said.
A major factor in his decision was his mother’s health – she had three stents placed in an artery in November 2010 and spent several months recovering at the Ollanketo home in Coon Rapids.
His mother lives in Menagha, which is 185 miles northwest of the Twin Cities, and Ollanketo wants to be able to spend more time with her, something that was not possible with the demands of his job as principal.
Born in Robbinsdale, Ollanketo graduated from Robbinsdale public schools and spent a year at the University of Minnesota before going into the U.S. Army for two years.
Returning to Minnesota from his tour of duty in the Army, Ollanketo went to St. Cloud State University, where he earned a teaching degree with an emphasis on elementary education.
Ollanketo had no specific education major in mind when he first went to college, but he began to take an interest in elementary education while at St. Cloud and a student teaching assignment at an elementary school sealed his career choice, he said.
“I fell in love with it immediately when I walked in the school,” Ollanketo said. “It felt right and it was all I wanted to do.”
“The students were happy and excited and I was able to develop a relationship with them. It was a good fit.”
He began his education career teaching first in St. Cloud and then in the Forest Lake School District before coming to Anoka-Hennepin School District 11 in 1980.
According to Ollanketo, he was living in Roseville at the time and was looking for a job closer to home.
His District 11 career began teaching first-grade at L.O. Jacob Elementary School, Coon Rapids, for a year, then Ollanketo went to Hamilton Elementary School, Coon Rapids, for three years.
Ollanketo returned to L.O. Jacob in 1984 and served as a reading teacher until 1997, working with all grades.
During that time Ollanketo also produced and hosted a cable television program titled “Reading Connect,” which ran for nine years.
When the reading teacher was eliminated at L.O. Jacob, Ollanketo stayed at the school to teach second grade.
But in 1998, Ollanketo returned to his speciality – reading – after receiving specialized training in reading intervention and recovery to help first-grade children struggling to read.
Ollanketo worked with kindergarten students in a number of District 11 schools before going back to L.O. Jacob in 2000 in a reading resource position, coaching kindergarten through third-grade staff in teaching reading.
According to Ollanketo, reading is the key to success in school for children.
Having earned his master’s degree with a concentration in literacy from Hamline University in St. Paul and his principal’s license from St. Mary’s University, Minneapolis, he spent the 2001-2002 school year as an administrative intern at three District 11 schools – Andover and Monroe elementary schools and Peter Enich Kindergarten Center.
The following year Ollanketo was at District 11’s Educational Service Center as a teacher learning specialist in literacy, but he yearned to get back to the school environment, so when the Hoover principalship was posted, he applied and was selected.
“I really wanted a chance to do instructional leadership,” Ollanketo said. “I knew what it meant to be a classroom teacher.”
Ollanketo defined his role as principal as providing “constructive coaching” to help teachers advance in their different roles, he said.
And in his year at the district office, Ollanketo said he also missed being around the kids and their families.
In his job as principal at Hoover, Ollanketo has made it a point to attend all school-related events, as well as to be at the school’s front door each morning to greet students as they arrive for school and at the same door in the afternoon to say goodbye as students leave school for the day, he said.
Ollanketo’s feelings about retirement are somewhat bittersweet, he said.
“Every day that I have been at Hoover has been a gift,” Ollanketo said.
Indeed, he said his retirement date of June 15 is coming up very fast.
According to Ollanketo, he will be sad to leave the school, its kids and staff.
He has enjoyed his relationship with the kids at Hoover, Ollanketo said.
It’s important to have a relationship based on mutual respect, not for them “to fear who I am,” he said.
Indeed, at Hoover’s observance of Memorial Day May 26, which was attended by more than 30 veterans with connections to the school, when it became the turn of Ollanketo, as a veteran, to state his connection to the school, he said, pointing to the students, “It’s all of you.”
He has also appreciated the opportunity to “help enhance some of the instructional programs” at Hoover, which has “very talented teachers,” Ollanketo said.
Ollanketo called Hoover a “true neighborhood school” and “like a family.”
His career has been fulfilling, Ollanketo said.
“I have had the chance to do every job that I ever set goal to do,” he said.
“It has all gone so fast. I can’t believe it’s over. It will be hard to leave.”
He has learned so much about how to help kids succeed, according to Ollanketo said.
“That has been a real passion,” Ollanketo said.
Ollanketo and his wife of 39 years, Loretta, live in Coon Rapids and have four adult children – Crystal and her husband Robin, who have two children; Jeremy and his wife Brooke, who have three children; Melanie and her husband Erik who have two children; and Lucas.
Retirement will also give Ollanketo more time to spend with his family.
While three of his children live in the Twin Cities, son Jeremy and his family live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and visits have been sporadic.
With retirement that will change, Ollanketo said.
Ollanketo has no other specific plans for retirement, although he can envision getting into consulting work in teacher training, he said.
Not surprisingly Ollanketo loves to read, but he also enjoys going to his lake property in Glenwood where he not only fishes, but also jet skis – early in the morning before the sun gets too bright, he said.
“And I think I have a book in me to write someday,” Ollanketo said.
