Ken Skrzesz

I am an AACPS: Alum, Brooklyn Park Jr. Sr. High School | Former Employee

In my first year as a student at Brooklyn Park Jr. Sr. High School I met Hal Gomer, a visual art teacher and the after school theatre director. Hal was the first person I met that was a professional artist and a teacher. He provided opportunities that were fun, vibrant, and endlessly creative. Because of his influence, I began to recognize that I related to the world in ways that were different from other people and that, for the first time, my way of relating felt accepted.

In those years the National Security Agency began recruiting 11th grade Anne Arundel County Public School students for a work study program. I was selected and, by my senior year, my school days were limited to little more than computer courses and driving to Fort Meade. My parents were thrilled and I could not have been unhappier. It was Hal who recognized my sadness and said to me, without hesitation, “You are an artist and you will never be happy until you pursue life as an artist.” Soon after our conversation I left the National Security Agency and eventually attended college and graduate school for dance performance and choreography.

Throughout my performing career in dance and theatre, I remained committed to education and to connecting with young artists, some of whom were struggling to recognize their creative tendencies, to encourage them toward a life that was beyond their imagination… just as Hal Gomer had done for me. This commitment inspired my work when I returned to AACPS as the teacher specialist for the Performing and Visual Arts Magnet Program. Now, as the Coordinator of Fine Arts for the Maryland State Department of Education my sphere of influence has broadened and, largely because of the interest of one AACPS teacher, I continue to seek opportunities to acknowledge the creative spirit that lives within every student and teacher in our state. Hal and I remained friends until his death several years ago. I was honored to speak at his funeral. I have a photograph of him on my desk, and his art work in my home, as a reminder of where I came from and how profoundly a life can be affected by the presence of one, caring adult.