The Superior Elementary School principal's appointment is something of a sea change for the 30-year-old private school. Valley Christian High School principal Sally Baier led the program for one year after founding superintendent Earl Reimer retired in 2006 for health reasons. Reimer had been the school's guiding force since it opened.
Valley Christian School Board chairman Brad Miller said Martineau's qualifications put him at the top of the pool of applicants.
The school is facing declining enrollment and difficult finances in a time when the overall economy is shaky, Miller said. But it is also in the process of building a new chemistry lab, home economics room and shop building, as well as creating a foundation to help with scholarships and school support.
A top priority will be bringing tuition charges closer to the actual cost of running the school. Valley Christian currently charges between $5,000 and $5,450 a year, but that's not enough to meet expenses. One strategy is to sell some of the school's surrounding property. Another is to start charging fees for its four school bus lines. And a 10-year-old online class program will now have to start paying its own way through student subscriptions.
The school also will try to market itself more aggressively. The recent addition of a readerboard along Reserve Street has inspired many visitors to drop in, saying they never realized the school was there, Martineau said. He hopes to find more of those people who want the kind of environment Valley Christian emphasizes.
“We want as strong a curriculum as we can,” Martineau said. “If we can have children who walk closely with their Lord, who know who they are in this world, the other things in the curriculum will fall more naturally into place.”
Martineau took to heart the school's mission statement from Colossians 1:18, “In all things, Christ pre-eminent.” He considers it his purpose to help the school's students and families weave their faith into their daily lives.
“Even down to the elementary level, the kids at Valley Christian need to face the challenge of how their faith fits into the culture out there, which may not be like-minded in their beliefs,” he said. “They need to go out and serve the community, wherever they might be.”
After getting an animal science degree from the University of Maryland, Martineau moved to Montana for graduate work in zoology. But while at the University of Montana in 1977, he got interested in education and instead picked up a science teaching endorsement. He also met his future wife, Linda Ruprecht.
The couple moved to Superior, where Martineau taught junior high and high school science and Ruprecht taught Title I courses. In 2000, Martineau became the school district's curriculum director, and two years later its elementary school principal.
He also worked on a master's degree in educational leadership from Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Ga. That experience, he said, gave him the training to look at education from a biblical perspective.
“I do adhere to the view of intelligent design,” Martineau said. “I think God didn't wind up the universe clock and walk away. But I didn't find any problem at Superior High School and junior high teaching the theory of evolution and what the theory said, or how it was proposed to work.”
He compared his science teaching style to a government teacher accurately explaining the principles of communist philosophy without actually endorsing them. But following a biblical perspective gives him greater latitude in counseling misbehaving students.
“Often a student needed to understand something was plain old sin,” Martineau said. “He's not devalued - he's created in God's image. But I wished I could have addressed the root of the problem more than I'm allowed to in a public school setting.”
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