Exceptional Educator: Tartan High School's Craig Spreiter

Craig Spreiter’s life did not exactly turn out how he had envisioned. beloved and respected DECA teacher laughs now about his grand plans to make millions as Pillsbury’s top salesperson by the time he was 30.

“By the ripe old age of 40 I planned to have all the success I needed and then I’d go back and start a DECA chapter in a high school with the aim of passing on real-world experience to the kids,” Spreiter laughs.

But a short stint with more than one shady sales outfit after college disenchanted him and derailed his future in sales. The one highlight of that period was the experience he gained training other salespeople. It was that training that put Spreiter on the path to achieving his other lifelong goal of becoming a teacher.

“It was during that period of training other salespeople that I felt the passion and connection with the teaching part of business. I always knew I wanted to teach. After I made a fortune I thought I’d spend the last 15 years of my life teaching. That was my life plan anyway,” Spreiter, a 14-year teaching veteran, explains.

While he certainly had acquired the skills and experience to become an exceptional educator, Spreiter’s desire to teach was borne of a different necessity. “As a youngster I felt like too many teachers didn’t understand what they were teaching us and how it would apply in the real world,” Spreiter says.

After a short spell as a DECA teacher at Sauk Rapids High School in St. Cloud, Spreiter got wind of a teaching vacancy at Tartan High School for the 1998-99 school year.

Garnering support from his mother, a longtime cook in School District 622, and his niece who was enrolled at Tartan at the time, Spreiter felt the school offered a level of familiarity as well as an intriguing challenge.

“I put every effort I could into opening doors here. I was pulling every string I could think of until one day my niece came home and told me that the principal had agreed to give me an interview as long I would stop pestering him, so I thought that was a good sign,” Spreiter says.

Building a DECA chapter

Tartan’s DECA program is one of the school’s most popular and exclusive classes. Spreiter accepts just 32 students each year and it is only available to juniors and seniors after they have successfully completed a business or marketing class that qualifies as a prerequisite.

Coming from Sauk Rapids High School which has one of Minnesota’s largest DECA chapters, Spreiter knew he wanted to build a different type of program.  

“Our DECA program is actually  one of the smallest in the state. I knew early on that I wanted to create an exclusive, elite program. In doing that I’m able to hand pick the students that are involved,” Spreiter says.

Spreiter’s real-world application of theory and training is one of the reasons why his year-long DECA class so popular. It is also one factor that distinguishes him in the eyes of Tartan High School principal, Dr. John Bezek.

“Craig is very engaging and he provides a real world connection to the business world for his students,” Bezek said.

Spreiter was able to build a successful and competitive DECA program at Tartan even in the face of direct rejection from school administrators.

“When I first arrived at Tartan, I was told on several occasions that there would never be a Tartan school store. I was told that it would never happen and that I should stop asking.”

It was only after Bezek's arrival that Spreiter’s dream began to take shape.

“Craig has made our DECA Program into one of the best in the state,” Bezek said. “I refer to it as one of our Cadillac programs in the building. Students want to be a part of it and the success builds on itself. Craig started our school store from scratch and now it is the focal point when you walk in the building.”

Living a dream

Spreiter said he feels his marketing degree combined with his real world business acumen have allowed him to blend theory with genuine experience and, in doing so, ingratiate himself with students.

“I think the students feel that I know a lot about business and that I listen to them before trying to answer their questions,” Spreiter said. “I would think that implies they believe I really am interested in what they have to say and want to hear their ideas.”

And while he loves the day-to-day challenges of running a profitable school store and being recognized and respected by colleagues and administrators, Spreiter’s true allegiance is to his students, he said.

“I have a dream job. Every year it gets better. Every year I feel I’m getting better. Every couple years I try to reinvent the way I do it and add things that keep me passionate about it and keep the students on their toes,” he said.

What is next for Tartan DECA?

Because Spreiter is able to hand pick his DECA students it makes it easier for him to build interest in the chapter, which he says, is the first step in building a winning program. It would seem his strategy is working.

On Jan. 5 this year Tartan competed against more than 600 students in the District II DECA Conference. Of the 28 Tartan DECA students competing, 27 of them will advance to State, most in multiple event areas.

Since December 2010, Minnesota’s 3,500 DECA students have been competing at regional conferences hoping to advance to the Minnesota DECA Career Development Conference in March this year.

The State DECA Conference hosts around 1,700 students with approximately 150 advancing to April’s International Career Development Conference in Orlando, Florida. The international conference includes students from all 50 US states as well as Canada, China, Germany, Mexico and various US Territories.

Of the 15,000 students who will be competing at the International Conference, fewer than 150 will be recognized with trophies.

Since 2004 Tartan DECA has had five Top Three winners at the International Conference and received numerous Top 10 trophies. Spreiter’s students have also built a national reputation for producing exceptional management case studies and research projects.

In the end...

Gone are the daydreams of making millions as a salesperson for a Fortune 500 company and while Spreiter once envisioned himself at a different place in life, he said there is no place that he would rather be.

The 41-year-old teacher’s goals have shifted from getting rich to enriching the lives and minds of the next generation of entrepreneurs.  

The only worry he has now is of disappointing his students. “My biggest fear is becoming a complacent teacher that rests on the same material that I’ve taught for the last 20 years. I would rather relearn everything I teach every two or three years. That approach will keep my mind fresher and younger and will keep the kids learning in new and different ways.”

Do you know an exceptional educator we should feature? E-mail your nominations to patty.busse@patch.com.