Exceptional Educator: Oakdale's Transfiguration School Says, 'Farewell, Mr. K'

Art Komarek, math and eighth grade homeroom teacher at Transfiguration Catholic School, knows the final countdown has begun (less than 25 days)  for students (and teachers) who are eager for summer vacation, but "Mr. K" is approaching the end of this school year with a very different attitude.

After 37 years at Transfiguration, Komarek, 61, is retiring from the profession he has loved since he first started teaching in 1973.  Throughout his career, Komarek —who majored in social studies and minored in math—said he has taught every academic subject at the school "except Spanish."

"All I ever wanted to be from the time I was young was a teacher.  I've loved all of it,"  he said.

Komarek admitted that if he had been told when he was a seventh and eighth grade student at St. Bernard's in St. Paul that one day he would be a successful middle school teacher, he would never have believed it.

"I did not enjoy those years at all. I couldn't wait to be done with junior high. I suppose it is poetic justice that I've been in those grades ever since," he said. "There's nothing they can think of doing that I didn't do when I was their age."

Komarek said he has always believed that the establishment of a safe and nurturing classroom environment is the most important part of his role; teaching kids along the way was what happened next.

"I have always wanted my students to know they are loved and that they are being listened to," he said. "I want them to know they are free to think in this classroom and that I want to hear what they are thinking about."

Ted Zarembski, principal at Transfiguration, called Komarek "a mainstay teacher" and one of the anchors on the school staff.

"He has always encouraged the kids to succeed and do well," Zarembski said. "He has been a great model for the students and is definitely a teacher who made a difference. He projects what he really is."

After so many years in the same school, Komarek has taught many students whose parents were once in his classroom.  In fact, every eighth-grader who has graduated from Transfiguration since 1974 has been one of Mr. K's students, including his own four children and now his 14-year-old granddaughter.

"My daughters and my son actually had me as a teacher six times each since I was teaching religion, American history and math while they were here," he said.

"I was always Mr. K to my kids, but it's funny because my granddaughter started calling me Grandpa in class," he said. "I decided that was fine."

With retirement just around the corner,  Komarek, who lives in Oakdale,  is looking forward to spending more time as Grandpa—in addition to his granddaughter, he and his wife have six other grandchildren, including a month-old baby boy.

Other plans include polishing up his golf game (he and Zarembski are frequent golfing partners), perhaps volunteering ("I'm a storyteller and I love to read to children", he said) and maybe working as a substitute teacher on occasion.

"I don't really have a Plan B right now, but I'll figure it out," he said, adding that "I owe my wife a trip to Italy at some point," perhaps in honor of their 40th wedding anniversary next year.

Komarek said the time is right to leave his teaching career behind, but for him, the career has always been much more than just a job.

"As someone who came up through Catholic education, I have always looked at my role here at Transfiguration as something of a calling," he said. "It has been more like a vocation for me."