C.F. teacher to lead county schools

A 37-year educator has been appointed as the new Superintendent of Schools for Flathead County.

Marcia Sheffels, a Spanish teacher at Columbia Falls Junior High, will take over for Donna Maddux when she retires on June 30.

"I am honored with that," Sheffels said of her appointment. She will be sworn in at 8 a.m. July 1.

Flathead County commissioners approved the appointment without discussion Tuesday.

Sheffels will work with Maddux next week to learn the ropes.

"I have been in close communication with Donna," Sheffels said. "She has answered many, many questions and I have visited her office … I appreciate that. I know the learning curve will be straight uphill."

Sheffels, a Whitefish native who graduated from Whitefish High School, has taught English and Spanish for more than 30 years in Montana - in Missoula, Great Falls and Columbia Falls.

She taught 16 years at the high school level and the remainder at the middle-school level.

While in Great Falls, she said her main function for 10 years was supervising student teachers for the University of Montana and Montana State University.

She continued in those duties in the Flathead Valley after returning to her home territory a few years ago. When a two-thirds position teaching Spanish opened at Columbia Falls Junior High, she jumped at the opportunity.

She continued in both positions for a time, then retired from the university work about three years ago.

When Sheffels submitted her resignation to Columbia Falls school officials to take the county superintendent's post, it was an emotional experience.

"I love teaching," she said.

"After an almost-37-year career, I would like to channel my enthusiasm and energy in another capacity," she said. "Where I am concerned in the classroom - because of the generation gap between those students and me - my effectiveness may lessen, in this capacity I can still make an impact.

"Once (I have) been so involved in education in different roles from middle school to high school to university, I would like to continue to use that knowledge in whatever is beneficial to students."

"It's a new chapter," she said, one in which she is looking forward to "serving children in a new capacity."

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