Title: Director of Operations, Transportation, and Buildings and Grounds
Company: Glenwood Community School District
Location: Glenwood, Iowa, United States
Frank Bachman, director of operations, transportation, and buildings and grounds at the Glenwood Community School District, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Educators for dedication, achievements, and leadership in administration and operations.
Over the past 20 years, Mr. Bachman has carved out a unique path at the intersection of education and project management. He began his professional journey as a teacher for several years. Though he enjoyed many aspects of teaching and working at a school, he found himself wanting more challenges that he could take pride in overcoming. With that in mind, he decided to shift into the construction field.
In 2008, Mr. Bachman joined Godbersen-Smith Construction Company, where he began to build his expertise in managing complex projects. Among other work during this time, he played a key part in building bridges across Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota. Mr. Bachman shifted over to a role in safety and equal employment opportunity compliance with TAB Construction in 2013. Here, he developed one of the key traits he’s become known for: a hands-on approach to leadership. Despite overseeing projects, Mr. Bachman would regularly work on them more directly. He would focus on office work some days, especially during winter months, but was also eager to contribute further, taking on manual labor in fields whenever the crew was shorthanded.
To his surprise, Mr. Bachman found a means of moving back into the world of education in 2018, in a role that seemed perfectly made to benefit from his skills. Since then, he has served as the director of operations, transportation, and buildings and grounds for the Glenwood Community School District. Blending his previous experiences as a teacher and in construction, Mr. Bachman is responsible for many of the details that keep the schools in the district running smoothly, troubleshooting problems as they come up and ensuring that learning is not disrupted due to problems with the school buildings, buses or other concerns. He oversees nine buildings spread across 30 acres, including two elementary schools, one middle school, one high school and a community college.
Beyond just keeping things running, Mr. Bachman has thrived in this position, taking great satisfaction in seeing how much his work positively impacts the lives of students. He has faced some difficult problems, including an extremely bad winter in 2018, flooding in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and beyond. Through it all, though, Mr. Bachman and his staff have calmly and gracefully navigated these complex scenarios, maintaining stability and continuity for students and staff. He is especially proud of having developed a preventative maintenance inspection program for the district’s entire fleet of buses, as well as a bus management system where students swipe on and off the bus using ID cards, greatly improving safety and efficiency across the district.
Before venturing onto his vocational path, Mr. Bachman solidified his credentials through his own education. He earned a Bachelor of Education in elementary education and teaching from Buena Vista University in 1999.
Outside of his work with the school district, Mr. Bachman is a loving single father to two children, a 16-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter. He prefers spending his free time outdoors, including hunting and fishing. Additionally, Mr. Bachman volunteers to manage a local ranch, which allows his children to enjoy time on the ranch riding trails and relaxing by ponds. Moving forward, his primary goals are focused on raising his children to be positive role models. Mr. Bachman also plans to continue supporting the growth of the Glenwood Community School District and the wider community in whatever ways he can.
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