DePriest retires from Peterson School

Moselle DePriest swept into Dan Hodge's room and took charge of the classroom full of Kalispell first-graders, just as she had done countless times before.

Clearly, the Peterson School principal was a familiar visitor as she settled in at the old upright piano and led the first strains of "My Home's in Montana."

The energetic young singers swung into a second rendition so visitors could join in, went for the gusto on "Polly Wolly Doodle," then closed out their time with DePriest on a rousing round of "Frog Sat on a Lily Pad."

Waves, hugs and good-byes sent her out into the hallway, where she crossed over to Valarie Parson's first-grade math lesson on fractions. DePriest roved from desk to desk, asking a question here, pointing out a solution there.

Today, as she heads into her first week of retirement, DePriest cherishes such memories as she reflects on the changes she has seen during her years in education.

"The biggest change is not in the kids themselves," she said, "but in the homes and the families."

With more mothers working and a greater emphasis on after-school programs, she said, students are looking more and more to the school for their guidance.

DePriest started her teaching career in 1967 at Billings Senior High School, where she spent four years as a high school business teacher. She resigned to raise her two daughters, and in 1975 moved with her family to 100 acres near Blue Bay on Flathead Lake's east shore. She prepared meals on a wood cook stove and did laundry in a wringer washer until her 1983 divorce.

By then, she already had re-entered the world of education, serving as the Office Education Department chairman for Salish-Kootenai College from 1979 to 1990. As their third instructor hired, she said "I call myself the grandmother" for the department that has grown to 50-some instructors.

During that time, she taught night classes at the Kicking Horse facility, then moved to the Ronan school facilities, and finally watched as the students moved into the new buildings they built at Pablo.

She earned her administrative endorsement with a master's degree from University of Montana in 1985 and served as an administrative intern at Polson Middle School in winter 1989.

It was more a natural progression than a master plan for the woman who places a high value on education.

"I never really thought I wanted to be a principal," DePriest said. "I never gave it any thought."

But within a few short years, she was.

In August 1990 she got a call from Kalispell school officials. Their administrative hire at the junior high hadn't worked out, they told her, and they wanted her to fill the post.

She started as assistant principal and when Principal Pat Feeley retired in 1995 she stepped into his shoes.

She remained there until being appointed principal at Peterson Elementary in 2000.

Her first year as assistant principal was a culture shock of sorts.

"I went to a little school, with 50 kids in my graduating class," DePriest said. "Then here I am in a school of 1,000 kids in two grades."

She handled discipline issues, something that could have discouraged a new administrator. But not DePriest.

"I look at it as a chance to make a positive difference in their lives, and do it in a positive way," she said. "It made an impact, helped me build relationships that I might not have had otherwise."

A transient student population and having the ninth-graders for only a year were a big shift, she said.

"You can't know those 600 names," she said from her Peterson School office this spring. "But I do here."

She took two more courses to gain her elementary principal certification when she was appointed to the Peterson job.

"I never thought I would be an elementary principal," she said. But as her career progressed from high school to college to junior high, "I thought it would be nice to finish with elementary.

It was a "fast decision" to take the offer, she said.

At Peterson, she encountered an admirable staff, she said.

"They're seasoned, competent," she said. "They had to train me, I didn't train them. My philosophy was to move out of their way and let them do their job … But I had to learn how to talk to a 5-year-old."

Now she loves to play with students on the playground and often was in the classrooms with her accordion or behind the piano.

She started a tradition with "Back in the Saddle Days," a schoolwide celebration of Western heritage held near the beginning of school each fall.

"Everybody thinks I'm a cowgirl," she said, because she spends 30 minutes on horseback on the playground for the celebration. In truth, she's not - learning to ride a horse is one of her retirement goals.

She said students flock around her on the playground, so she uses her influence carefully.

"Every single day I'm working on how we treat each other," she said. She carries zero tolerance for bullying.

"When someone comes to me, I am on that immediately."

DePriest said she hired more than half the current Peterson staff during her five years at the school, and has a collegial and helpful group today.

Although she enjoyed her time as an elementary principal, she said, "I think if I had to pick, I would like junior high the best. They are so 'on the edge.' It would be nice if I could make a difference."

She followed in the footsteps of her mother, Nancy DePriest, who was a country school teacher before quitting to raise a family and continue a proud tradition with her cook stove on a ranch near Chinook.

Nancy DePriest raised four children, all of whom were expected to go to college - and have it paid for by their parents.

"They did without a lot," she said of her parents. "I am very fortunate. I had a wonderful education, and to be able to give back a little tiny bit " has been a real privilege for her.

Now, as the years pass, her pride in her own daughters only increases.

Her eldest, Kris Nordberg, a teacher in Polson, lives there with her husband, Jack, and children Beau and Ansley. Her younger daughter Annie, a dental hygienist in Kalispell, lives here with

her husband, Ben Binger, and their son Holden.

DePriest plans to learn fly fishing along with horseback riding, but her prime interest in retirement is spending time with the family.

"I lost my mom last October," she said. "It made me realize there are only so many years to be with them.

"I want to play with my grandchildren, not just watch them play. I want to be in the lake with them, put the worm on their hook for them."

In a sense, she'll be able to pass along something of the wonderful childhood she experienced while growing up in Chinook and being a proud third-generation Montanan.

So she plans to "stay here, enjoy my home, my garden, my music," she said.

The connection between her garden and young lives does not escape DePriest.

"It's the satisfaction of watching something you planted grow and develop," she said. "And it's not unlike watching kids develop."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com