Principal: Accountability higher than ever in schools

SANDPOINT — If you want a good idea of how far local schools have come over the past several decades, ask someone who grew up attending them. Better yet, ask an individual who has worked in them, as well.

Sandpoint High School Principal Tom Albertson fits that description nicely, both as a student and an educator who has worked at the high school for the past 30 years. His family roots go even deeper, adding another generation to those who can attest to just how much things have changed for the better in public schools.

“My mom and dad were both born and raised in Sandpoint and educated in the school system here,” Albertson said. “Dad used to leave home at five in the morning to ride his horse to Grouse Creek School.

His mother, meanwhile, attended Farmin Elementary where a bank and part of the city parking lot can be found today. Albertson went to Northside School for the first eight grades of his schooling, before going on to Sandpoint Middle School in what now serves as an office building next door to the original high school on Euclid Avenue. He graduated in 1982 and, after college, jumped right into work as a math teacher at Sandpoint High School.

“My first year of teaching was the year they double shifted,” said Albertson, who has also worked as activities director and assistant principal. “That was a really chaotic year — it was not a good year.”

Over time, though, the situation has steadily improved to the point where Albertson — who has been principal for the past three years — now serves as an administrator in a school district he holds up as more rigorous and transparent than at any time in the past.

“As far as education in our local schools today, the accountability is higher than ever before,” he said, citing upward curves in student progress, graduation rates and SAT scores, along with greater emphasis on teacher and administrator evaluations in the district.

At the high school level, the goal is no longer just earning a degree — a document that may or may not suffice to land a job later — but a shift in focus that embraces the dual tracks of college readiness and career preparation alike.

“More than any other time, getting students career and college ready has become important,” the principal said.

Instead of acting solely as a feeder system for college-bound students, today’s SHS, while still robust in the area of college readiness, also takes into account the learners who might be better served pursuing a technical degree after graduation.

In both camps, students now benefit from a relatively new approach that blends core curriculum areas such as reading, writing and math with “soft skills” — how to collaborate and communicate to most effectively use the knowledge gained in the classroom. The in one ear and out the other school of learning is no longer acceptable — today’s students are required to demonstrate they can put the information into practice.

“What we’re pushing students to do is really understand what they’re learning and be able to explain it in that communications piece,” said Albertson. “That’s a shift we’ve seen and I think it’s a good thing.”

However, the things that keep kids coming to school — that keep them engaged and excited about learning — transcend core curriculum and career preparation.

“Ask kids what brings them to school and over and over they’ll tell you it’s our band, or choir, theatre, weight-training, welding, upper-level business courses,” the principal said. “It’s the electives that give them aspirations and the ability to apply what they learn in core classes.

“Anybody who’s been in a school play, played on a sports team or taken part in an academic team knows how important that is to the life of a student,” he added. “Obviously, it’s about opportunities. I’ve had conversations with people who argue that we provide too many of them, but my job is to provide those opportunities for students.”

As the March 14 instructional levy approaches, Albertson finds himself in a situation where those electives are at high risk if the funding isn’t approved by voters while, at the same time, students are asking the school to step things up even further.

“We’re always asking students, ‘What can we do better?’” he said. “And their answer is, ‘Bring more language courses back, bring automotive and vocational agriculture and athletic training back. Students are asking for more and I’d love to put those classes back in for them — but budget does not permit it.”

That said, a successful levy election would only allow the high school to “maintain, not add to, the current level of school activities,” according to Albertson.

As a veteran educator and administrator, the principal has seen his share of levy elections and heard the rumors that invariably accompany them. Leading up to this go-round, the apocryphal stories have included everything from administrators being issued taxpayer-funded, foreign luxury cars to expensive new layers of administrative staff being added across the district.

Albertson found the luxury car myth to be merely laughable, but addressed the staffing increase propaganda head-on.

“We’ve actually done the opposite,” he said. “Just in this building, we reduced from five administrative positions down to three and there have also been other staff reductions and cost savings.”

Frugality, it turns out, was something Albertson had ingrained in him well before entering the field of public education.

“Fiscal responsibility is something you learn growing up on a farm,” he said.

Apart from his work at the high school, Albertson also keeps his hand in as far as keeping the family ranch going. His ability to have the skills do so, he noted, is a direct result of “the schoolhouse” and the same community network that supports kids today.

“I look at that as a unique thing here,” he said. “Sandpoint has always stepped up to supports its youth — in our schools, but also through things like 4-H and scouting, youth sports and church groups. It’s the culmination of all of that.”

As March 14 draws closer, the principal encourages citizens to look beyond the sometimes heated rhetoric of editorial pages and coffee klatch debates and stop by their local schools for first-hand, on-the-ground information and answers to their questions.

“In our community, we do a great job with public education and I invite people to look at the big picture,” he said, listing the 2016 high school graduation rate of close to 95 percent and SAT scores that fell into the state’s top tier as examples. “Trust your schools — if you ever have any questions, come in and ask. If you hear something that may not seem right, get clarification and then make your own decision.”

As someone whose own career was made possible through a positive experience in local schools, Albertson remains a big proponent of unlimited access to learning.

“I was raised to believe in public education — that it is truly the center of the community,” he said. “Education is the great equalizer. We are better, as a whole, as an educated society. I would hate to go backward to where only the wealthy can afford a good education.”