End of an era for N. Thurston

LACEY – A classroom was a different place 40 years ago, when Jim Koval accepted a job that brought him to Lacey.

“I’m not sure that a lot of attention 40 years ago was paid to the actual progress of students. If you came into a classroom ... if there wasn’t chaos in the room, if the students were orderly and quiet, people would have thought, OK, you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing,” said Koval, who will retire as the superintendent of the North Thurston Public Schools at the end of the month.

“Move all the way forward to 2009, and that’s changed dramatically,” he said, adding, “More attention is paid to things related to student achievement than whether they’re in their seats with bright shiny faces.”

The graduations in the North Thurston district that start Friday will be Koval’s last; he has held the top job in the 13,500-student district since 1998. Koval started in the district as a social studies teacher in 1969 and spent his entire career with North Thurston.

He said changes in the education profession have created better opportunities for students to find success.

“We have a belief that all kids can learn. I think – no, I know – we didn’t have that belief 40 years ago. We have that belief now, and we have to maintain that belief,” Koval said.

Education also has changed in the past 40 years, with accountability measures created by the state and the federal government. North Thurston has undergone its own transformation in that time.

Social studies teacher Ed Smith said that even in the 1980s, when Koval was the assistant principal at North Thurston High School, “it was a small hick district in the north part of the county, and now it’s the biggest district in the county.”

North Thurston is the state’s 22nd-largest district based on enrollment and the second-largest employer in Thurston County. It has 20 schools, with the 21st – Chambers Prairie Elementary – set to open in the fall.

“The thing he did was take us from that smaller district to the ‘now’ district; we’re not the biggest in the state, but we’re a very large district,” Smith said. “He was able to do that and still maintain that personal touch.”

HELPING STUDENTS ACHIEVE

Koval said he was offered positions at three districts during his senior year at Central Washington University in 1969 – Cle Elum; Tacoma, his native city; and North Thurston in Lacey, the city where his soon-to-be wife, Diane, had grown up.

“My wife and my future in-laws were thrilled that I had been offered a job here,” he said.

North Thurston won out partly because the district offered him a coaching position as part of his job, and he saw an opportunity to grow and learn. He spent 23 years at North Thurston High School, serving in a range of capacities including as assistant principal and principal.

Koval said a desire to help students find success fueled his decision to become a teacher.

“Kids are at the heart of the work we’re doing, and your success is measured by their success,” he said.

“If kids are successful, then I’ve been successful.”

GOES OUT OF HIS WAY

Smith, who started working at North Thurston in 1980, said Koval kept students’ unique circumstances in mind as a high school administrator.

“A teacher or parent or kid who was struggling or a kid who was the valedictorian – he was willing to go out of his way and help,” Smith said. “He was very aware of people and people’s individual needs. He was willing to do what was necessary. Maybe sometimes not going exactly quite by the rule book, but he’d say, ‘This is a situation where this is going to help somebody. We’re going to make this work.’ ”

Dena Ferris, who graduated from North Thurston High School in 1986 as Dena Niles and now is an administrative assistant at Timberline High School, said that students also took him seriously.

“He was strict, but he did it in such a way that I think most everybody who walked away from him at the time ... felt he wasn’t a bad guy, he was a good guy. He loves kids,” Ferris said.

“I think the consistency and the way he handled everything – you knew what you were getting, always,” said Eddie Gentry, who graduated from North Thurston in 1990, when Koval was principal, and now is a health and fitness teacher in the district. “A great quality is to be genuine and compassionate and caring.”

Gentry, who has been friends with Koval’s son Sean since they were children, said that compassion set a tone for the way Koval dealt with students.

“If people understand that you are a consistent, rational and understanding person, definitely, way more times than not, you can pretty much get through any type of issue,” Gentry said.

CHANGES, CHALLENGES

In 1993, the state Legislature instituted major education-reform measures – including the creation of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning – and established state standards.

Districts throughout the state were working to bring their textbooks up to the state standards, said Bill Williams, who has been on the North Thurston board since 1986.

When then-Superintendent David Steele announced his resignation in 1998, Koval, who was in charge of the district’s curriculum, was a logical choice, Williams said.

He said Koval was the board members’ choice after they interviewed him in an executive session.

“It was clear here was a man who was interested, and he could keep us moving forward. And that was obviously what happened,” Williams said.

He said that because of Koval’s ability to connect and relate to teachers and others, the district was able to implement the Effective Schools initiative, a program that uses training and teacher collaboration to focus on specific learning goals for each grade level.

“Because of his credibility with the staff and the community, we’ve been able to make some significant changes in the way we do business in the classroom,” Williams said.

Gentry, the health and fitness teacher, agreed.

“He’s delivered it in a way that has made it easier for all of us to handle the issues in regards to education and in regards to reform,” Gentry said. “Even with dollars and the budget, he’s made it easier for us to do our job by being positive and telling us how good a job we are doing and how much we do make a difference.”

GRADUATION

Koval said that for many, the reforms have created an assumption he disagrees with.

“There are those that think that with all of this change, kids have to graduate on time and they all have to go to college, and if that doesn’t happen, then we’ve failed,” he said. “I believe very strongly that if a student walks out with a diploma, and it’s taken four years, or five years, that’s OK. I’m much more concerned about students leaving high school and having no clear direction.”

He said that some of the programs in the district, such as South Sound High School and Aspire Middle School, the district’s new performing arts and advanced academics magnet school, have been started with the idea of creating opportunities for students to learn.

Koval said he fears that those options, and more, might disappear as the state coffers face shortfalls.

“My greatest concern is that the Legislature took the first step on what basic education is going to look like and will roll it out starting in 2013,” he said. “We shouldn’t wait until 2013. We’re shortchanging kids now. The fallout for the budget process will have severe implications.”

He said that as districts feel the pinch, residents will be forced to reconsider programs and features that they feel have been important, such as smaller class sizes.

“It’s going to take the will of the community ... to honestly ask some tough questions about what has to be in place,” he said.

However, Koval said that students today are getting more out of their schools than when he taught his first class.

“When you look at where we started 40 years ago, and what we’ve matured to at this point, I think we’re so much better,” he said.

“I know people sometimes believe that we should do things in the way they were done when we were growing up. If we did things in the way they did when we were growing up, kids would not leave with the tools they need to be successful in the century in which we live.”

Venice Buhain: 360-754-5445

vbuhain@theolympian.com

www.theolympian.com/edblog