On the brink of retirement

Working at Evergreen School District has been a highlight of Superintendent Joel Voytoski’s career in education.

After 16 years as superintendent of the Evergreen schools and 32 years in education, Voytoski is retiring.

The 2009 Montana Superintendent of the Year hasn’t brought out the golf clubs just yet. His mind is focused on getting the job done until his last day, June 28.

Voytoski has spent 27 years in administrative positions, but he started out as a high school social studies and physical education teacher and a varsity basketball and cross-country coach at Centerville School District in Sand Coulee near Great Falls.

“Initially I was very much interested in working with high school kids,” Voytoski said.

Eventually, though, he wanted make an all-encompassing difference in children’s education by working hand-in-hand with teachers and went back to school for a Master of Education degree specializing in administration.

“Ultimately, I felt I could make more of a difference in the administrative role. I felt my strengths were a natural fit with what a superintendent does.”

One of those strengths is working with budgets and numbers.

“I have a niche in numbers,” Voytoski said. “I enjoy working with numbers and policy as strange as it may seem.

“The thing I’m most proud of is the development of a preschool program,” Voytoski said about the program now in its fourth year. “The idea here is once you’re an Evergreen kid you’re always an Evergreen kid and we’ll support you from preschool through post-secondary education.”

Following student progress from preschool through high school graduation has also been a continuing initiative.

“We developed what we call our post-secondary planning program. That is a program where we hire a coordinator to work with students here in seventh grade to start thinking about what they’re going to do after high school,” Voytoski said. “We support them with the ultimate goal being, of course, to get their high school diploma.”

The district established a scholarship program for Evergreen alumni pursuing post-secondary education about five years ago.

Education has changed significantly since his first teaching job in the 1970s.

“We know a lot more on how kids learn. We know a lot more about the brain and what are, in fact, best practices,” Voytoski said.

With new education standards coming down the line — the Common Core — aimed at making standards seamless from state to state, he said it is more important than ever to teach at a deeper level with the ever-increasing responsibilities placed on teachers.

“We need to stop teaching everything an inch-deep and a mile wide. We need to go deeper with teaching and we need to make choices,” Voytoski said.

Some of those choices could take the form of a longer school year.

“The fact of the matter is we need a longer school year or a longer school day. That means more funding and more money,” Voytoski said.

He noted the school board is key to making these choices for Evergreen students.

“I want to commend the school board members I’ve worked with over the years. I wouldn’t have been here for 16 years without the quality of the school board members volunteering their time because they want to do what’s best for kids,” Voytoski said. “They are true advocates for Evergreen schools and education as a whole.”

In retirement he looks forward to golfing, boating, RV road trips and not having a schedule.

“In 26 years I’ve only taken two consecutive weeks off three times,” he said.

The school is currently in the process of reviewing applications for candidates for the superintendent position.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.