The seventh ROCORI Arts Hall of Fame induction ceremony will occur on Thursday, May 16th at 7 p.m. introducing Sue Tabaka-Kritzeck as the 2024 inductee before the musical performance of “9 to 5”. The Arts Hall of Fame selection began in 2016 with the committee’s choice of the first class of Bob Harris, Shirley Harris and Dick Rausch. Mike Weber was inducted as the second class in 2017. Dee Holsinger was inducted in the third class in 2018 and Sheena Janson in the fourth class in 2019. The Arts Hall of Fame was delayed in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid issues. Connie Wenker was then inducted in the next class of 2022, followed by Lisa Drontle in 2023.
Sue Tabaka-Kritzeck was a ROCORI educator from 1975-2009. She started her teaching career at ROCORI Junior High School in 1975 teaching English to seventh and eighth graders. She moved to ROCORI High School where she taught World Literature, 9th, 10th, and 12th grade composition, as well as American Novels and Creative Writing. She was instrumental in the creation of ROCORI Middle School in the mid-1980s, where she then taught seventh and eighth grade English and reading, as well as elementary media classes to first and second graders.
Sue served on the district staff development council for many years, serving as the president and helping create the position of Staff Development Lead Teacher. She held that position along with teaching until the position became an administrative one. After Cold Spring Elementary school was built, Sue became the library/media specialist for the middle school and continued teaching some English, reading, and video production classes. She also served as the liaison to the state arts high school (now known as the Perpich Arts High School) for the Media Literacy Grant awarded to the ROCORI district shortly after the Comprehensive Arts Planning Program (CAPP) was formed.
The CAPP committee was formed in 1989 and served to bring light to the many avenues of art—performance, visual, and written—that was going on in the district. CAPP served to enhance the development of many programs available for students beyond art, band, choir, and theater. Through the committee’s work, speech, creative writing, dance, photography, video production, and media literacy became a part of student life at ROCORI.
During this time, Sue continued to work with students on creative writing, as well as teaching the students how to create videos. The Media Literacy Grant had allowed for the purchase of a video editing suite, and it was housed in the ROCORI Middle School Media Center. She taught students how to create slide shows that were then transferred to video along with teaching the students how to do voiceovers using the microphone. When the middle school participated in National History Day, Sue was always busy working with students long into the night on their videos for competition at the local, regional, and state levels. Sue also created a drama club for the middle school students where they worked on small plays, rehearsing, and putting on performances for small groups. She became a member of the Great Northern Theatre Company, acting on stage and serving as house manager for a few years—bringing her daughters Katie and Mandy along, allowing them to get hooked on the fun of being on stage. During this time, Sue herself participated in many of the staff activities, singing in the talent shows and performing for the students with a group of other teachers. When the CAPP committee was doing the Madrigal Dinners as fundraising for arts in the district, Sue was either acting the part of being the queen or working in the kitchen helping to prepare the food.
When Sue retired in 2009, she and her husband Tom moved to Florida where they still reside. Their daughters live in Oak Grove, Minnesota, and Brooklyn, New York, along with sons-in-law and grandchildren—Hadley, Harrison, Callen, and Guy. Sue is still an active writer herself and is getting ready to launch her first solo book this year. She has been published in Courage Under Siege: Volume V: Flight to Light, as well as one of Suzy Prudden’s Itty Bitty Books on Leadership. She is a member of the Tallahassee Writers Association where she was the newsletter editor for six years.
A granite plaque will be placed on the ROCORI Arts Wall of Fame to honor Sue Tabaka-Kritzeck for her years of service in the arts at ROCORI. There will be a presentation of a replica plaque to Connie and her family members prior to the opening of the spring musical performance on Thursday, May 16th at 7 p.m. in the Glanville Smith Auditorium. Tickets can be purchased until sold out for the spring musical performance of “9 to 5” for anyone interested in attending. Congratulations to Sue!
