Last days of Linderman

'It's been the greatest place to teach'

It was only supposed to be a temporary solution to Kalispell's school facilities crunch. But after nearly four decades housing the district's seventh-grade students, saying goodbye to that temporary solution is bittersweet.

Since 1969, when the district's eighth- and ninth-graders moved into the newly built Kalispell Junior High School, Linderman School has housed the city's seventh-grade student population.

School trustees promised the separation would last only until the district could build a high school large enough for students in grades nine through 12, so the seventh-grade could fit in the junior high.

It took 38 years, but that promise has at last been kept.

This fall, when Kalispell opens its second high school and the junior high opens as Kalispell Middle School, seventh-grade students and staff will bid farewell to the temporary solution that served the district so long.

"Knowing the finality of it all" has made this last seventh-grade year in Linderman an emotional one for many, Principal Micah Hill said.

"It's been hard," he said simply. "I guess what I hold on to is as staff, we will carry this over to the middle school. The intangible things that make Linderman Linderman will translate to the middle school."

One of the most important intangibles, he said, is the school's close-knit sense of community.

"I don't want to say relaxed, necessarily, but it was more a personal kind of school," said Nancy Ross, who retired in 2002 after teaching English at Linderman for 33 years.

"The unique thing about Linderman School is that it was just seventh grade," she said. "Students were allowed to grow up at their own rate."

Having a single-grade school eliminated peer pressure from older and younger students, Ross explained. It didn't mean all students grew up at the same rate.

"Some were 13 going on 9, and some were 13 going on 17," she said. "But they were able to grow at their own speed."

It created a sort of camaraderie, knowing everyone was going through the same kinds of growing pains. It's a unique age, Hill said - the time when students are beginning puberty, undergoing emotional and social changes and developing the morals that will shape the rest of their lives.

With so much upheaval going on, it was important to have staff to help students through the sometimes bumpy transition from elementary to high school, Hill said, to help students move from childhood to all that lies beyond.

"The educators here understand that," he said. "They can empathize."

It created a bond between staff and students, he added, that contributed to camaraderie between staffers.

"We all have the same intent at heart: seeing kids be successful," he explained.

But the bond extended beyond the school walls. In addition to sharing classroom experiences and warnings about rowdy students, teachers socialized outside of school.

"I couldn't have asked for anything better in my entire teaching career," said Ross, who did spend her entire teaching career at Linderman.

She was hired over the phone in 1969 as a new college graduate from Indiana University. Her original career plan was to start in seventh grade and eventually work her way up to high school classrooms, where the "real teaching" took place.

But after a short time at Linderman, Ross had no desire to leave.

"It was just the place where I wanted to be," she said. "It was a good mesh, it really was, all those years."

As a teacher, it's the only school John Hughes has known.

He has taught science at Linderman for 20 years, after leaving his job at the Flathead Lake Biological Station to pursue a degree in education.

"It's been the greatest place to teach," he said. "I feel very, very lucky."

He said he has enjoyed working with seventh-graders, "a great age group."

Ross agreed, but acknowledged that teaching seventh-graders wasn't for everyone.

"You have to really like seventh-graders to stay there," she said. "It's like trying to keep 30 corks under water at the same time. You really have to like it."

For the most part, the teachers who came to Linderman liked it. Few people left after a year or two; most who arrived were there to stay. It was considered "a prime spot to teach," Ross said.

That prime spot created a unique experience for students. For many, seventh-grade stands out as one of the highlights of their academic careers.

"I can count maybe on one hand or two hands the number of people who did not have a good experience there," Ross said.

Although Hill has been the principal at Linderman for just three years, he has heard the same thing from former students.

"I've heard so many people say, 'This was the best year of my life in school,'" he said.

It has likewise been a good experience for Hill, who taught at Kalispell Junior High and Flathead High School before taking the administrative position at Linderman.

"Coming in, I didn't know what to expect," he said. "By far, it's been very rewarding."

It's been rewarding for students and staff alike all 38 years, he added.

"It was a temporary solution," he said, "but it's been an amazing success."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com