Warm lights, comfy chairs, and a fresh bakery smell fill the Greyhound Alternative Program (GAP) classroom. The GAP was created for students whose learning styles are incompatible with the traditional teaching style. The room is bright with natural light; big windows expose strong light streams to the far side. On the other side, the lights are dim, allowing what’s left of the sunlight to illuminate the couches, tables and chairs. Truman Solverud, the new Director of GAP, resides on a hightop in the center of the room. 

Solverud, a former special education and credit recovery teacher from Francis Howell Central High School, is new to the CHS family. 

Solverud taught for eight years before coming to the district. Many years of soul-searching and past jobs led him to this point. 

“For 30 years, I worked in restaurants, then, I had a midlife crisis and went to school,” Solverud said. “I’ve never been to college until my 40s”.  

Solverud grew up in St. Louis and lived in North County. He left St. Louis in the 1990s to begin the next step in his career, his restaurant business. 

“I started [at] TGI Fridays, back when TGI Fridays was the place before it went weird. Then they moved me to Oklahoma, Texas, Florida and Colorado, where I settled and raised my kids,” Solverud said.

Solverud ran coffee shops and catered in Colorado. His wife, Donna, was a teacher, and they had three children: two girls and one boy. 

“I was doing breakfast and lunch stuff and then owned a couple of coffee shops, but then I decided I didn’t want to go back to working for somebody,” Solverud said.

Tired of the restaurant business, Solverud returned to school. 

“That’s when I had my healthy midlife crisis and went to college to be a teacher,” he said. 

They worked together for two years until Solverud transitioned to Clayton. Before moving to St. Louis, Solverud worked in alternative schools. He started in Fort Collins, CO, where he raised his kids. While in school, he taught elementary school and found passion in supporting kids with disabilities. 

“I always ended up dealing with behavior. [I worked with] kids that struggled [and] couldn’t even be at school,” Solverud said. “I guess my temperament was a good fit for that.”

Back in St. Louis, working at Francis Howell Central, Solverud worked with children who could not meet the requirements for the alternative program.  

“They were so full at the alternative school and were picky about who they wanted to take. So you had to have no bad behavior and good attendance, which most people who are struggling in a regular school setting do not have. So they would just put them with me,” Solverud said. “I ended up being this behavior, credit recovery teacher. I focused more on kids facing challenges in a normal high school.”

Solverud worked with struggling kids and as a special education teacher. He assisted in case management and taught a couple of sections on resource, personal finance, and health for kids with disabilities. Wanting to find a solution, Solverud and another teacher considered ways to bring an alternative program to Central. 

“I was researching a program that I could present to them to say, ‘Hey, let’s make this an official alternative school, and I can be a part of it,’” Solverud said. 

During his research, Solverud found a job description for Joyce Bells’ position as director of Alternative Learning at CHS. 

“I read the job description. It was my dream job. If you asked me, ‘What would your dream job be?’ And I wrote it down, like, philosophy, educational philosophy, it would have been right there,” Solverud said.

Not believing he could get the job, Solverud applied for it with no intent of receiving it. The position was for the Director of Alternative Learning, and Solverud, with little teaching experience, had nothing to lose. 

“I just applied for giggles, and every step of the way, I thought I’d be done. It was [a] really good experience. But I was kind of, like, ‘I don’t need a job, so I was just being me. I’m excited about education,” Solverud said. 

Being himself made the process easier, providing a new perspective within this education sector. 

“I’m kind of idealistic. I believe in a restorative, trauma-informed approach to education,” Solverud said. “I bring this perspective of service from being in restaurants and how I serve and communicate with families. I wanted [the administration] to have a very good idea of who I was because I was pretty successful in my old position.” 

At Francis Howell Central, Solverud was technically running a few programs, including Special Ed and an unofficial alternative program. Now at CHS, Solverud finds [the weekends] strange with less work. 

“At my old job, I was constantly working outside of school since I was doing a lot of different jobs inside of school,” Solverud said. “I feel like I am not doing enough because I have little to no extra work on the weekends.” 

With additional time, Solverud can focus on his hobbies and interests outside of teaching. 

“My main interest is health. We’re kind of [at] that age where we’re taking care of parents or losing parents,” Solverud said. “My focus is to stay healthy,” Solverud said. 

Solverud enjoys traveling outside of his career, visiting his daughter and grandson in Florida or packing up and taking his family to the beach.

“[My wife and I] just hook up the camper and go. We wander,” Solverud said.

Solverud has a daughter and two grandsons in Idaho, another daughter and grandson in Florida and his son currently resides in Colorado. 

“We usually travel around to see them,” Solverud said. “Luckily, they live in cool places.”

Ready to support any kid that comes his way, Solverud’s enthusiasm fills the room as he speaks. As a GAP teacher, Solverud is ready to build his students’ back up, even if it means starting from the bottom. 

“My hope for them is to have this continuum of support where we get kids back on their feet, and [the kids] can still stay connected to their school while being in the program,” Solverud said. 

Solverud has gotten to know the teaching staff over the past five weeks of school, and they have inspired him to accomplish great things. 

“These [teachers] are all excellent. They love education. They’re all positive. They’re all accomplished, and their fields are knowledgeable,” he said. 

Although Solverud endured many unknowns and career shifts, he ended up where he wanted. 

“It’s like everything I thought it was going to be. From a school and values perspective, the school culture, the support from the administration,” Solverud said. “The main reason I came here is because it aligned with what I believe about public education and how to support kids. I’m excited to be here.”