Jeff Rissman, BioMedical & Health Sciences Assistant Principal

Jeff joined Arlington High School back before "The New High School" had a name or a building. As part of the planning team that worked with SPPS staff, students, parents, community members and architects in 1994-1996, he participated in the development of a building plan in which "Curriculum Drives Design."

The result was Arlington's House and Focus Area model, one which would later gain national acclaim as a model for effective smaller learning communities in a large high school.

A former English teacher who joined the District in 1988 after graduating from Macalester College in St. Paul, Mr. Rissman taught

at Harding High School and Hazel Park Middle School before becoming a member of the District's Curriculum Team. It was as a member of that team that he first began working on the New High School project. He officially became Arlington's Curriculum Coordinator in February of 1996, and served in that position

from the time the building opened that fall through the end of the 2003-04 school year.

In the fall of 2004, Jeff joined the Arlington administrative team and began in his role as assistant principal. In the fall of 2007, when Arlington implemented BioSMART, Mr. Rissman became the administrator
for the BioMedical & Health Sciences pathway, working with all students and staff in that area.

Jeff lives in Minneapolis with his wife of 20 years and their four children. In his free time, he enjoys running and playing guitar... but not at the same time.

In This Section
Contact Information
Education Background
Professional Conferences (Presenter/Panelist)
Positions in the Saint Paul Public Schools
Favorite Quotes

"What could be more essential in a pluralistic society like ours
than that every citizen see dignity in every other human being everywhere?
Be warned:
if you allow yourself to see dignity in someone, you have doomed yourself to wanting to understand and help whoever it is."

—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.