ABOUT MIKE SCHOEMER
Email: mike.schoemer@patch.com Phone: 763-218-0827 Hometown: Sioux Falls, S.D. Current residence: Albertville, Minn. Birthday: Jan. 5, 1974 Mike Schoemer is a 13-year veteran of community journalism, having worked in cities including West Fargo, N.D., Edina and most recently, Monticello, where he was managing editor of the Monticello Times. He has won multiple awards for his writing, including a first place award from the Suburban Newspapers of America for a team-edited piece on homelessness in the Twin Cities suburbs. Schoemer and his wife, Jenn (a St. Michael native) live in Albertville with their three children, who are all under the age of 5. An avid golfer, Schoemer has recently taken up fishing with his family on Knife Lake near Mora, Minn. He also enjoys basketball and skating in the winter months. My Beliefs At Patch, we promise always to report the facts as objectively as possible and otherwise adhere to the principles of good journalism. However, we also acknowledge that true impartiality is impossible and human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal certain key beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable. This disclosure is not a license for our editors to inject these beliefs into stories or to dictate coverage according to them. In fact, the intent is the opposite: we hope that the knowledge that our beliefs are on the record will force us to be ever mindful to write, report, and edit in a fair, balanced way. And if you, the user, ever think you see evidence that we failed in this mission, we wholeheartedly invite you to let us know. A self-proclaimed political mind, Schoemer is a registered Democrat, but has tended to lean more conservative now in his "old age."  As a child in Sioux Falls, Schoemer was part of the first kindergaren class at St. Mary's Catholic Elementary School, and graduated from Sioux Falls O'Gorman Catholic High School. He is still a practicing Catholic, and his family attends St. Michael Catholic Church. Schoemer feels some of the key issues confronting St. Michael and Albertville are sustaining commercial growth while waiting for the housing market to recover from the collapse of 2008; maintaining and increasing the quality of School District 885, which is one of the "newest" in terms of facilities in the state; the aging population of Wright County; and, of course, traffic issues in downtown St. Michael and Albertville near Interstate 94.