Page 12 December 30, 2021 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
Michael Wagner from front page
Saint Matthias high schools.
Nearing 20 years, Wagner has been part of
the local community youth sports scene, serving
El Segundo Little League, youth football,
and lacrosse organizations in managerial and
coaching positions. In 2014, Wagner began
serving as an assistant football coach at El
Segundo High School and continues to be an
integral part of the youth coaching community.
He earned a master’s degree in education at
Mount Saint Mary’s College in Los Angeles. He
obtained an administrative services credential in
education from Loyola Marymount University
and a special education credential from Azusa
Pacific University. Before obtaining his degree
in education, he received his Juris Doctor from
Loyola Law School and a bachelor’s degree
in Law and Diversity at Western Washington
University.
Wagner was born and raised in the Los
Angeles area, spent time living in Hawthorne
and Inglewood, and attended high school in
Santa Monica. He moved to El Segundo after
completing his collegiate schooling. Wagner
said that his Mom had moved to El Segundo
from Hawthorne, so he and wife Sylvia were
familiar with the town where they would plant
their permanent roots.
He fortuitously met a long-time El Segundo
resident looking to sell her home to a young
couple. They struck a deal for Wagner to move
into town. It was not easy, Wagner said. “It took
every dime, and two pennies, that I could scrape
together,” to buy in El Segundo, a move that
Wagner encapsulated in this manner: “Never
a minute of regret. I have always found El
Segundo to be a welcoming community that
embraces (newcomers).”
He likes that friends and neighbors keep a
(somewhat) watchful eye on the El Segundo
youngsters and blossoming young adults. He
said, “the proof is in the pudding,” noting the
successes achieved by many El Segundo High
School graduates after venturing outside of the
city’s boundaries.
He calls the ESUSD a “destination district”
that is attractive for parents and students
who are not in the District to consider when
choosing a school district. “The diversity of
El Segundo is what sells our schools,” he said.
“From athletics to band, to science pathways,
to club life, there is everything under the sun
that a diverse school (system) can offer.”
After contemplating running for a school
board seat for a few years, Wagner took the
plunge in 2020 and secured a seat on the dais.
Nice timing, right? with the scourge of COVID
raging around the globe. He said that while
COVID has severely impacted the ESUSD and
all California school districts, he still feels that
serving on the school board in 2020 and 2021
were “pinnacle years,” even with the pandemic
and the political partisanship leading up to the
2020 presidential election, noting how many
school board meetings, not necessarily in El
Segundo, have turned into “shouting matches.”
“But it has been a wonderful experience,” he
said. He had an inkling, as he ran his school
board election campaign, about what awaited
him as he assumed school board duties but has
learned a great deal in the first year plus on the
job, lauding the District’s “great teachers, great
administrators, and great school site cabinets.
They have all been extremely supportive.”
Wagner has been steadfast in his mantra:
“Keep the focus on the kids, and the kids’
achievements…It has been nothing but excellent
for me. Keep what is best for the kids in
the forefront” of all of the decisions that the
school board is tasked to make. Those decisions
should be “apolitical,” he shared.
Wagner is learning on the school board job.
“I am a little rough around the edges,” he
said. “Sometimes I might not be refined as I
should be” when defining and discussing school
board policies. “As a new board member, you
are asking new questions,” he said, which he
sees as a benefit. He said that as an educator,
teacher, and coach at the high school, he has
a “long-term relationship” with many of the
folks in town who “feel comfortable coming
to me” with their ESUSD concerns.
“A lot of people do not have the time to
get informed about ESUSD issues,” Wagner
said. He feels that it is his job to immerse
himself in District policies and issues, so that
when community members ask him a specific
question, “I can explain to them the truth of
what is going on, and why things are being
done the way that they are. I take that really
seriously in preparing for the meetings,” he
said, noting the tranche of information that
currently flows from federal, state, and local
entities to school districts. Not to mention the
CDC and the department of public health at the
County of Los Angeles missives and directives
as COVID continues to lurk.
“There are a lot of bureaucracies that we
have to deal with on a week-to-week basis.
I like to be fully informed on what is going,
so that I can inform my constituents,” he said,
citing the supportive work performed by Superintendent
Melissa Moore and the ESUSD
administrative cabinet.
Tracey Miller-Zarnecke is the current school
board president: “We are so lucky to have
Mike’s perspective on the Board,” she said.
“With four children as students in ESUSD
schools, his professional experience in the
realm of education, and his passion for our
community, Mike brings great energy and
insight into our deliberations.”
Steve Shevlin is the ESHS athletic director.
Here is what he added about Wagner: “Mike
has been a great addition to the ES Community.
As a volunteer coach for El Segundo
High School, he has served as an Assistant
Varsity Coach, for years filling various positions
(special teams/DB’s/LB’s) and currently
as the Defensive Coordinator for the Eagles.
He also was our Head Frosh /Soph Coach for
four years. In addition to football, he coached
two years of Boys JV Lacrosse for El Segundo
High School.
“Coach Wag” has also been involved with
the El Segundo Pop Warner Football Program
and helped to re-emphasize the community
participation of our El Segundo Youth. This,
along with the Spring Flex Football League
(no contact/flag), has been a welcome addition
to teaching the nuances of football to the kids
of El Segundo.
“When you talk to Coach Wagner (and his
wife Sylvia), the passion, love, and commitment
they have for this community is a great
asset to us all.”
Off the gridiron and out of the classroom,
Wagner likes to head to a lake in the lower
Sierra’s and partake in a little trout fishing. He
says that in the winter months, “it gets really
cold out there,” but he says the chilly temps
are a boon to trout fishermen because the darn
near-freezing water gets the trout activated,
“teeming,” he said, and Wagner and family
members and friends can troll the lake and
bag their limit.
With no cell signals available on the lake,
Wagner is able to concentrate on nothing but
catching trout. As we all should do, right…
sometimes get off the grid?
Not a bad way to put on hold the teaching,
coaching, school boarding responsibilities, which
he must return to after removing his fishing
line from the water and return to reality. “We
are political figures,” he said of those elected
to serve on the school board, “but I do not
want to be political. As school board members,
we must be all about the kids, the welfare of
kids, and their achievements.”
He calls teaching and coaching a “vocation”
and much more than just cash a paycheck job.
“It is something that I am called to do,” he
said. “It is the right thing to do advocating
for the best interests of children. I am humbly
grateful that I have this opportunity.”
And so are the citizens of El Segundo. •