For Mike Williams and Jerry Seidensticker, Tuesday was a blur of new faces both young and old. The two men are Missoula's newest public school principals - at Franklin and Rattlesnake elementary schools, respectively.
“We're into lunch already,” Seidensticker said as a swarm of first-graders rambled past en route to Rattlesnake's new playground equipment. “The first thing I noticed was the size of the children here. Daly Elementary was a grade 2-5 school, and here we've got kindergarten through fifth.”
Over at Franklin, Williams was equally pleased to be at a new helm. He came from Lone Rock Elementary School District, where he was both superintendent and part-time principal of the two-building system.
“It was 25 years ago this year that I decided this is what I wanted to do,” Williams said. He recalled an afternoon when he returned to shoot baskets on his old Hellgate Elementary School playground and had an epiphany of sorts.
“I had been working construction for a couple of years out of high school,” he said. “One of the custodians let me in. I walked by my first-grade teacher's classroom, and I had real flood of positive emotions of how much I enjoyed that place. It was a real turning point in my life, about knowing what I wanted to be.”
Williams spent 15 years in the Bitterroot Valley as an administrator, as well as five years as a classroom teacher. Seidensticker taught elementary and middle-school classes for 14 years before becoming an administrator in 1999 at Grantsdale Elementary School. He was principal at Daly Elementary in Hamilton from 2001 to last spring.
“I loved my staff at Daly, and it was really hard to move,” Seidensticker said. “But these people (at Rattlesnake) have been so supportive, it's been really welcoming.”
Seidensticker switched an hourlong morning drive for a three-block walk to his new job. Williams is remaining at his home in Stevensville. Seidensticker replaces Gail Becker, who has become MCPS' assistant superintendent for curriculum. Williams replaced longtime Franklin principal Mike Maxwell, who retired last spring.
The two men take on a position that has evolved greatly as federal education standards put new pressure on schools. In addition to the usual task of being the court of last appeal for most student discipline cases, they now have greater responsibility to ensure teachers are up-to-date on testing standards and record-keeping.
“It used to be that parents used to look at teachers and say, ‘He or she is good, and that's enough,' ” Seidensticker said. “Now they ask, ‘What are you doing for my child? How much are they growing every day?' They want to see the performance.”
Williams said one of his challenges will be to keep his building up-to-date as technology needs change rapidly. With limited budgets, that requires some tricky maneuvering through staff priorities and district requirements, he said.
“Anybody can steer the ship,” Williams said. “But you need a navigator to go where you want to go.”
Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at rchaney@missoulian.com
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